Chapter 372- When the Tree Falls, the Monkeys Scatter
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nora
However, the spies that the Star Alliance had planted in Thread were not happy for long.
Qing Sikou announced the news in the guild channel.
"Facing the current situation, I've decided to allow members to leave. You can either be solo players or join other guilds; I won’t interfere with any decision you make."
The moment her words landed, the guild channel exploded.
The 110 thousand members were split into two groups.
One group chose to leave upon hearing her words. Since their leader had given up, what was the point of them staying?
Why not just leave on good terms?
As work occupation players, the members were not afraid of failing to find a new home.
Of course, some of them had gotten sick of the backstabbing that occured in guilds. Hence, they decided to become solo players. They would run a shop in the imperial city to earn money and raise their skills.
The other group were the loyal members who tried to stop Qing Sikou.
"Guild leader, don’t. We don’t want to leave Thread."
"That's right. It's our home; we won’t leave!"
"Leader, we built this up with so much hard work, don’t disband!"
"Leader, say something!"
"If Thread disbands, what can we do?"
Some of the members were thrown into disarray; they seemed like baby wolves that lost their mother.
Qing Sikou was currently feeling very conflicted.
On one side, she could hear notifications of members leaving, while on the other, she could hear members begging.
The members that stayed let her know that there were still loyal people in the guild. They were connected and belonged to the guild.
Even so, she had to continue this cruel test.
Qing Sikou shouted out once again, "Thread will not disband, but we won’t merge with any other guild. If despite that, you want to stay, I won’t say anything."
Even some of the loyal members started to waver the moment she said that.
After these few occurrences, Thread had fallen down the guild rankings and had an unknown future.
As a result, the ambitious members chose to leave.
More and more members chose to leave.
At first, it was just the outer group members. Now, even the elite and core members chose to leave.
When Qing Sikou saw this scene, a tinge of sadness appeared in her eyes. Especially after she saw core members leave, it left a huge impact on her. These people were the ones that had fought by her side for so long over many games.
She did not expect them to choose to leave at this crucial moment.
The real life interests that Earth Online affected were simply too big. The motives of playing were not so pure anymore, and these interests greatly tested the loyalty of the players.
If the tree falls, the monkeys will leave.
Suddenly, she also felt a sense of relief. She hoped that after this, Thread would revive itself in Yazhou.
In an entire afternoon, a total of forty thousand members had left. Those who had not left yet were mainly still exchanging guild contribution points for items.
Before they left, the members would basically spend up all the contribution points they had accumulated.
All of a sudden, the resources in the storage of Thread that had piled up like mountains started to disappear at a fast rate.
As the guild leader, she could prevent them from exchanging, but she did not. After all, they had earned the points with their hard work, and they also had the right to leave.
This series of events had totally fallen outside of the expectations of the spies. Their excitement turned into shock. They could only laugh bitterly and report the new intel.
After they heard that a large amount of the Thread members had left, the guilds in Jingdu bustled with excitement.
When both Jianqi Zongheng and Star Alliance acted, the other guilds who knew that this would happen backed off.
Since Thread refused to merge with other guilds, the members that left would not belong to anywhere and could be recruited.
The various guilds started to recruit members who had left Thread on a large-scale.
At the start, they went to receive the new members one by one.
As things progressed, they decided they would rather just set up a recruitment station outside Thread, as there were just too many of them.
The Thread members that chose to leave packed their stuff. Then, the moment they left the base, various guild members pestered them.
This scene was highly explosive.
Some guilds even fought right on the streets to snatch members.
In the imperial city, fighting was prohibited. If not, the moment they were caught, they needed to go to jail. They were not Blood Blade, who could escape easily as a single person.
Hence, they could only quarrel or have some simple fist fights. Even if the constables rushed here, as long as it was not a riot, they could explain the situation.
Not only the Thread headquarters, the other ten branch guild bases also had similar scenes. Around the headquarters were the large-guilds, while around the branches were the middle-sized guilds.
As for the small-sized guilds, Thread members definitely would not consider going to them.
Jianqi Zongheng was present too.
Since Star Alliance could not take down Thread, naturally, Jianqi Zongheng would not care. They ordered their managers and recruiters to take in large amounts of Thread members.
Such a scene even alarmed other imperial cities.
Blood Evil Mercenary Group, Streamer, and Eighteen Horsemen of Yanyun even came over to poach people.
This scene was like a buffet.
And Thread was the only dish.
In this feast, the angriest and most annoyed person had to be Xingzhe Zichen.
After he received the initial intel, he was delighted that his first battle had ended in a victory. With that, the people who disagreed in his family were totally proven wrong.
However, the feeling in his heart was not as good when he got the second news.
He went from the peak, right into the deep trenches.
He scolded out, "Scum! Actually choosing to disband rather than joining me."
Xingzhe Zichen totally hated Qing Sikou, the person who had caused all of this.
He had never faced such humiliation in his life.
He was so furious that he was about to lose his rationality. He even wanted to send people to take revenge.
Luckily, there were some smart people in Star Alliance.
At the crucial moment, their advisor stepped out, "We can take revenge next time. What's more important is for us to attract more members of Thread now."
When Xingzhe Zichen heard these words, his anger faded. He patted the advisor’s shoulder and commended, "You're right. You'll be in charge of this."
"Thank you, leader!"
He backed off and started to join the feast.
This lasted all the way till the afternoon of the next day before it ended.
On the 3rd month, 30th day, 4 PM, there were less than ten thousand members left in Thread.
Facing such a situation, Qing Sikou felt heartbroken.
When she had agreed on this test, she had expected large amounts of members to leave. But she did not think that 90% of them would.
She even doubted herself and wondered if she was a failure of a guild leader.
Now, the ones that remained were the truly loyal members. All the spies were basically cleared out.
Star Alliance only had one spy left. They were only there because Xingzhe Zichen still hated her and wanted to take revenge.
During this feast, Star Alliance had only recruited three thousand. Jianqi Zongheng, on the other hand, recruited ten thousand and could form a work occupation branch guild.
All the guilds in Jingdou got a cut.
As for the other guilds in other imperial cities, they also gained a little bit. Blood Evil Mercenary Group had recruited five thousand, even more than Star Alliance, who was positioned at Thread’s home ground.
The influence of Star Alliance was obviously not as great as he had expected. Three thousand compared to ten thousand, the large difference made him furious.
He had decided to take revenge on Thread and make them leave Jingdu.
The three guilds in Shanhai Alliance also joined in the feast.
When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he did not do anything. He was the alliance leader, but he would not interfere in their internal decisions.
At 5 PM, Qing Sikou performed a rough calculation. Out of the ten thousand, the main guild had three thousand left.
When she got the numbers, she felt a little happier.
At least the main group was trustable. Additionally, out of the hundred core members, half of them stayed.
As for the ten branch guilds, most of them left. Some had one thousand remaining, mostly less than that. One or two newly set up branches basically only had a few left, while the rest had all left.
Helplessly, she could only gather all of them into the main guild. As for the ten branch guilds, they would be left as empty shells.
Qing Sikou gathered her feelings and started to speak in the guild channel.
"Fellow members, I am Qing Sikou!"
The same words sounded out, but they contained a totally different meaning now.
The change that the guild had undergone had left the ten thousand of them terrified.
This was the weakest moment of Thread but also its strongest moment. The remaining members were totally united, they could only ride through this by staying together.
"Through troubles, we can see the truth. At the crucial moment, I've seen your loyalty, and I'm really touched by this. Now, I'm going to announce that our headquarters will move to Yashan City."
"Yashan City?"
"Yashan City is a base that Qiyue Wuyi has built in Qiongzhou Island. It will be where we spend our future. If you do not want to leave Jingdou, you can leave the guild. I won’t force you."
Qing Sikou did not describe Yashan City much. Even so, the golden signboard of Qiyue Wuyi made all of them see some light in this darkness.
When they heard these words, only a few members left the guild because they did not want to leave Jingdou. Qing Sikou prepared some compensation for these members.
After all, they had passed the test. Naturally, they should get some rewards.
In the storage of the guild, there was only a portion of resources left. After all, they were just basic resources and Qing Sikou had kept the rare ones.
The valuable resources were the industries that the guild set up in Jingdou, including the hundreds of workshops and fifty to sixty shops.
Some shops were even in the bustling areas of Jingdou.
These businesses were what they amassed in this year. Their goal was to build a stable platform that would provide the guild with their main source of gold.
Qing Sikou sold all the products that the members processed.
The only thing she kept was the main courtyard. Firstly, she wanted to keep it as a memory. Moreover, she wanted to leave some assets in Jingdou for when they return.
Even the empty shells of the ten branch guilds were sold to other guilds.
Qing Sikou had raised 160 thousand gold considering everything. This would be the capital Thread would use to rise up again in Yashan City.