Star Moon Royal City, top floor of the Star Moon Restaurant.
This was a place that only a handful of players were willing to visit, yet the spacious luxury private room now held more than ten people. If Bai Qingxue had been standing here, she would have been greatly surprised, because every person present was a founding elder of the Star River Alliance — even Xinghe Wangxi had to show them a measure of respect.
But right now, all of them had their heads lowered, silently watching a woman sitting on a long bench. She was only Level 10, and their eyes were filled with awe.
"What did you say? Xinghe Wangxi still can't log in?" Liu Shishi's slender brows furrowed as she demanded in a low voice, "What exactly is going on?"
The Star River Alliance elders could only respond with helpless expressions.
After the war ended, they were supposed to immediately begin stabilizing and pacifying the guild. However, the vast majority of guild executives who had participated in the battle were unable to enter Divine Realm.
According to the Divine Realm system's notification, the shortest ban was two days, and the longest was a staggering four days.
Four days!
That was more than enough time for the mainstream players of the Star Moon Kingdom to level up by over a full level.
Although the elders were organizing and scrambling to steady the guild's sinking morale, the fact that most of the higher-ups were nowhere to be seen had planted seeds of doubt in many members' minds. Were the top players of the Star River Alliance jumping ship to other guilds?
If all the experts were leaving, what was the point of staying?
In just a few short hours, the number of members who had withdrawn from the Star River Alliance exceeded ten thousand. If this continued, there was no telling what the guild would become.
But that wasn't even the worst part.
The worst part was that Miss Liu Shishi was absolutely furious about the Star River Alliance's defeat.
A first-rate guild, beaten by an upstart guild on their own turf — it had Liu Shishi seriously questioning the Star River Alliance's capabilities.
If Liu Shishi suddenly pulled her funding, it would be a catastrophic blow to the Star River Alliance.
"You don't even know why you can't log in? I think this guild of yours is truly finished." Liu Shishi's beautiful eyes widened as she snapped in a sharp tone, "Since your guild is already hopeless, consider any further investment off the table. This lady isn't about to throw money away on a useless guild. Now get out, all of you!"
The Star River Alliance elders' faces turned ashen. They all began pleading with Liu Shishi, begging for another chance, but she had them thrown straight out of the private room.
For Liu Shishi, the one thing she could never tolerate was failure.
She had originally invested in the Star River Alliance to take on the Zero Wing Guild and make Shi Feng understand the consequences of angering the Kaiyuan Financial Group, all so she could seize the magic crystals in the Stone Fang Mountains. But it had turned out like this — not only had they failed to teach Shi Feng a lesson, they had actually made him famous in a single battle.
"The Seven Sin Flowers are useless too. So confident before, and in the end they still lost. At least the previous deal was mainly about giving them a third of the Stone Fang Mountains' magic crystals, so we didn't have to pay many Credit Points." Liu Shishi stared at the numerous forum posts about Black Flame on the Star Moon Kingdom's official boards, feeling a surge of irritation. "Looks like in the end, I'll have to handle this myself."
...
Meanwhile, in the real world, the Star River Alliance's higher-ups had already begun a covert meeting.
They couldn't communicate directly in Divine Realm, but the Star River Alliance was itself a major corporation, and they usually held meetings through virtual video conferencing. The absence of Divine Realm didn't hinder that, though it made commanding members inside the game far more difficult.
"Chairman, our losses this time are severe. A preliminary count puts lost equipment at over fifty thousand pieces. Making up for all of that will take quite some time. But the worst part is that we — the people here — can't log into Divine Realm for the time being. Catching up to the Snake of the Body in levels afterward is going to be extremely difficult." Chi Yu reported in a low voice.