TSA Chapter 57

After eating their fill, Soul Chaser and the others had no intention of returning to their dorms. Instead, they dragged Ran Qi and Gu Le straight to Star Gaming Lounge, looking exactly like a bunch of internet-addicted teenagers. In their words, they’d just be sleeping if they went back, and they could rest just the same in their gaming pods.

As soon as Ran Qi and the others logged into the game, they saw the World Channel flooded with messages scrolling rapidly. People were cursing at each other, while others were providing real-time updates, making it seem like a full-blown world war was breaking out.

Many members in their guild were also spectating the drama, so Gu Le couldn’t help but ask about it in the guild channel.

[Guild] [Coke]: Why is the World Channel so lively today? Anyone know what’s going on?

[Guild] Alice: I know! Someone formed a random team to run an Abyss Dungeon today, and they ended up looting a Guild Summoning Order. But then, the team leader took the token and ran! Now, a ton of people are hunting him down all over the world!

[Guild] Cain: Check out this post—[Exposing Moon Shadow Guild! Shameless thieves who stole a Guild Summoning Order!]

Cain, ever the front-line gossipmonger, immediately posted a detailed thread on the matter.

“Why is it Moon Shadow Guild again?” Ran Qi and the others frowned slightly and clicked on the post.

Aside from the Children’s Day event, Guild Summoning Orders only dropped from Abyss Dungeons. At this point, the only guild capable of fully clearing an Abyss Dungeon was Invincible. The dungeon’s difficulty was simply too high for average players to conquer. However, if players only targeted the first and second bosses, they at least had a chance at some rewards. Since every boss had a 100% drop rate, lucky players might even score purple-grade equipment or other valuable items.

In recent days, more players had reached Level 30, and since they didn’t want to waste their weekly Abyss Dungeon cooldown, many had turned to the World Channel to form random teams and try their luck.

The team that found the Guild Summoning Order today was exactly one of those random groups. The leader was a Level 34 Warrior, while the rest of the team members had only just hit Level 30. Their run was a grueling ordeal—several members even died once before they finally managed to take down the first two bosses.

The first boss dropped a piece of purple armor. Following typical raid etiquette for random teams, interested players bid for it, while the others received a small compensation for their effort. Everything seemed normal.

But then, the second boss dropped a Guild Summoning Order, which was completely unexpected. Countless guilds had been desperately waiting for such a token, making it an incredibly valuable item.

As soon as the system announcement went out, players immediately started offering to buy the token on the World Channel. Since most players still had limited in-game currency, the wealthier guilds offered to pay with Star Coins instead. The price quickly skyrocketed to 60,000 Star Coins!

At first, the team was thrilled. They began discussing how to sell the token for the best price—after all, 60,000 Star Coins split among 15 players meant about 4,000 per person, which was enough to buy plenty of nice things. The team leader remained silent, and everyone assumed he was negotiating with buyers. But then, he suddenly left the team and logged off.

The entire team was stunned. In this era, disconnections or network issues were virtually nonexistent, so his abrupt logout was obviously intentional.

At first, they still held onto a sliver of hope, thinking maybe he had some urgent real-life matter to attend to. But then, an anonymous post on the forum completely shattered their expectations.

The post contained a short, 15-second video, showing someone gloating while holding a Guild Summoning Order, telling his teammates about the amazing guild benefits that would be available once their guild was officially established.

Everyone knew that Guild Summoning Orders were extremely rare and always announced by the system when obtained, no matter how they were acquired. Since the only two system announcements so far had been for Invincible’s one and the one from today’s random team, it was 100% certain that the token in the video was the exact same one.

It didn’t take long for players to identify the person in the video—a high-ranking officer from Moon Shadow Guild. The players who had fought hard in the dungeon, only to be scammed, exploded with rage and flooded the World Channel, demanding an explanation from Moon Shadow Guild.

Moon Shadow’s members claimed that their guild had simply purchased the item, but that excuse didn’t hold up. Many other guilds had offered to buy it, and there was no reason for the leader to sell it specifically to Moon Shadow—especially when Glazed Moon Guild had openly bid 60,000 Star Coins and was even willing to negotiate higher. Glazed Moon Guild leader was filthy rich, and known for generously recruiting life-skill players. There was no way he’d hesitate to spend money on a Guild Summoning Order.

After the team leader who stole the token left the party, he immediately logged off without even going through a trade process. It was clear that he had mailed the token to someone in Moon Shadow Guild instead. However, since Star Coins couldn’t be traded in-game, how exactly did Moon Shadow Guild pay him?

This led the players to suspect that the team leader who stole the token was likely a member of Moon Shadow Guild, possibly even one of its higher-ups. Otherwise, there was no reason for him to pull such a risky and thankless stunt.

Fortunately, players had become more cautious when forming random teams, so several members had been recording the dungeon run from start to finish. The footage served as solid evidence, which they promptly posted on the forums.

Stealing loot was already one of the most despised actions in the game, let alone stealing an extremely rare Guild Summoning Order. The team leader who suddenly logged off and Moon Shadow Guild instantly became the center of heated discussions, and soon, more dirt about Moon Shadow Guild started surfacing.

For instance, the guy in the short video smugly showing off the stolen Guild Summoning Order was none other than Ba Ge, who had a history of stealing crafting recipes. Because of this, the old forum post where Feng Wuhen had once tried to clear Moon Shadow’s name started trending again.

The players who got scammed weren’t just any random newbies—they were all Level 30 players with decent skills; otherwise, they wouldn’t have attempted the Abyss Dungeon in the first place. Since they couldn’t track down the vanished team leader, they could only vent their frustration on Moon Shadow Guild instead.

They placed bounties on all of Moon Shadow Guild’s higher-ups, which was why the World Channel was in such an uproar.

Ran Qi shook his head, thinking, Some habits just never change.

Moon Shadow Guild had the Guild Summoning Order, but they didn’t dare establish their guild right away for fear of exposure. Yet, they never expected Ba Ge to flaunt the Order so arrogantly, and worse, someone caught it on video—leaving them with zero room to defend themselves.

That aside, the Abyss Dungeon’s cooldown would reset tomorrow, meaning Ran Qi and his team could run it again.

Everyone quickly shifted their focus back to the dungeon. Compared to last time, their levels had significantly improved—especially Night Owl, the leveling fanatic, who was already Level 42. Running the Level 30 Abyss Dungeon this time would be far easier than before. Loot wasn’t even their main goal anymore; what they really wanted were occupation skill books.

This time, they wouldn’t need outside help. Night Owl decided to select three skilled and trustworthy guild members to train for future dungeon runs. Their guild couldn’t rely solely on the main team forever; they needed to cultivate more independent dungeon-running teams to keep growing stronger.

So, he asked Windstorm Jiangnan, Sword at Fleeting Time, and Ran Qi each to recommend one member. As guild vice leaders, they were the ones who interacted the most with guild members, making them the best people to select candidates.

Windstorm Jiangnan: “I think Alice is a great choice. She’s the most active player in guild tasks—her contribution score has always been ranked first. I’ve taken her on dungeon runs before, and she has solid combat awareness. Her healing is stable, and she’s definitely worth training.”

Sword at Fleeting Time: “I’d say Cain is also a good option. He may be a bit of a gossip, but he’s extremely helpful. Whenever something happens in the guild, he’s always the first to step up.”

Ran Qi: “I’ll go with September Sky.” Ran Qi was mainly responsible for managing life skill players and had been working closely with the five new recruits. They were all promising, but since this selection was meant to train an independent dungeon-clearing team, he chose September Sky. With Alice (Priest), Cain (Assassin), and September Sky (Warrior), their team composition was perfectly balanced.

Night Owl nodded. “Alright, that’s settled. Fleeting Time, reach out to them. If anyone isn’t interested, we’ll pick a backup.”

There were plenty of talented and promising players in the guild, but with only three available slots, they had to be selective.

“Got it.” Sword at Fleeting Time agreed immediately.

But honestly, who would turn down such an amazing opportunity?