171: Chapter 171 Betrayal

"Huff, huff—"

Everyone lay on the ground, gasping for breath.

They had just gone through the sixth wave of the beast tide.

Jiang He's expression was grave at this moment.

This beast tide was far more difficult to deal with than he had imagined.

The monster level for just this sixth wave had already reached level 90.

He didn't dare to imagine how terrifying the final BOSS legion would be.

According to Storm City's population statistics, there were over 120 million people before the beast tide, and now only 90 million remained.

This meant that 30 million people had been killed back to the Novice Village.

Looking at the levels again, besides the ten of them, Purple Scorpion, who was first on the leaderboard, had been level 75, but had now dropped to level 67.

And what he couldn't figure out even more was: Every time they survived a beast tide, they should have received experience feedback from the system.

But now that it was almost over, the system hadn't made any other sound since it announced the start of the beast tide.

Just then, Thomas walked over, looking worried.

"Xie, Brother Xie, I have something to tell you."

"Hm?" Xie Yunzhou looked at him in confusion.

"Brother Xie, I'm sorry. Actually, this beast tide was, was triggered by me."

"What?" Everyone was shocked.

Xie Yunzhou stood up abruptly, grabbed Thomas by the collar, and roared: "Damn it, what the hell is going on? Explain it to me clearly!"

Thomas told him what had happened to him with a grave expression.

Originally, Storm City's development was going smoothly.

Although there was Xie Yunzhou causing trouble, the impact wasn't significant.

Until the appearance of Blackrock Tower, which pushed Thomas into a desperate situation.

It wasn't just some ordinary map, but a passage between the True Immortal Domain and the virtual world.

Each floor represented monsters of a certain level stage.

When the number of monsters accumulated to a certain scale, the tower gate would open automatically.

Then, the monster army would swarm out and begin a massacre of the players.

At first, Thomas didn't know all of this.

But it was only after Xie Yunzhou became the first to break into it, that things changed.

That night, The Black-robed Man found Thomas, and told him the truth about Blackrock Tower, demanding that he stop players from leveling up quickly and designate Blackrock Tower as a restricted area.

If he didn't obey the orders, the other party would not hesitate to destroy everything.

Thomas didn't agree at the time and even threatened to lead people to conquer Blackrock Tower.

But later, he compromised.

The Black-robed Man told him that reincarnated monsters had already appeared inside the tower.

If anyone broke into the 70th floor or higher, they would completely abandon this Blackrock Tower and release all the monsters inside in advance.

At that time, the average level of all players in Storm City was only 30, if all the monsters from Blackrock Tower rushed out, they would be unable to resist at all.

The only thing awaiting them would be the destruction of the city and their deaths.

And the highest-level player at the time was Xie Yunzhou, who was a full 20 levels higher than the person second on the leaderboard.

So Thomas had to follow the instructions of The Black-robed Man, spread false information saying there was a hidden BOSS in the wild, and use that to lure Xie Yunzhou out.

But Thomas never expected that he would fall into the other party's trap.

He originally thought the other party just wanted to kill Xie Yunzhou a few times to suppress his level.

But that one time, Xie Yunzhou completely disappeared from Storm City.

Hearing this, Xie Yunzhou roared with a face full of anger: "Damn! No wonder when I went to the wild, I didn't see any hidden BOSS at all, and ended up accidentally entering the Void Land! I thought it was just my bad luck, but it turns out you were the one behind it all along?"

Thomas looked apologetic: "I'm sorry, Brother Xie. I had no choice but to do this for the safety of all the players in Storm City."

Xie Yunzhou was so angry that his fists clenched and creaked.

At this moment, Jiang He walked over from the side and patted his shoulder: "Alright, Old Xie, the City Lord was in a dilemma at the time. If you didn't always rely on stealth skills to steal monsters and kill people, you wouldn't have created such a large level gap with other players, and you wouldn't have been targeted by The Black-robed Man."

Xie Yunzhou sighed and glared at Thomas, asking: "Then what about this beast tide?"

Thomas lowered his head and said slowly: "Originally, I was quite happy that you returned. But who knew you guys would insist on going to Blackrock Tower to grind monsters? And you even grinded all the way to the 95th floor?"

That day, he remembered the words of The Black-robed Man: If anyone breaks past the 70th floor, you must report it to him. Otherwise, the consequences will be unbearable.

So Thomas immediately set off for the Sea of Death.

It was currently still a void, but there was a Teleportation Array installed there.

The entrance was always guarded by someone, and he contacted The Black-robed Man through the guard, after reporting the situation, the plan proposed by the other party was: sacrifice this Teleportation Array to create a fake beast tide.

As long as they expelled the ten of them from Storm City, the beast tide would stop.

But later, The Black-robed Man went back on his word.

He felt that this wasn't secure enough, and intended to actually launch a beast tide to suppress the average level of Storm City players back to level 50.

"But why does he have the ability to launch a beast tide?" Fire Phoenix asked in confusion.

Thomas looked even more ashamed: "It, it was me who signed the Beast Tide Contract on behalf of Storm City as a player trial, which brought about this disaster."

"Damn, damn, damn—"

Xie Yunzhou pounded the ground like a madman.

He knew Thomas had his reasons and was doing it for all the players in the city.

But he just couldn't swallow this anger.

"Why the hell are these Black-robed Men everywhere I go? Don't let me catch you, or I'll tear you to pieces!"

"Brother, Brother Xie, that Black-robed Man... is currently locked up in the City Lord's Mansion."

Upon hearing this, everyone was immediately burning with rage.

"Let's go, brothers, let's go kill him!"

Xie Yunzhou was the first to rush into the city.

Jiang He and the others followed closely behind.

Arriving at the City Lord's Mansion, heavy guards were stationed outside the room.

"Brother Xie, that person is in the room."

"Damn!"

Bang—

Xie Yunzhou kicked the door open violently.

A Man in Black Robe was sitting upright on a chair.

Seeing everyone, he snorted coldly: "What? Did you come to beg me to let you off?"

"Beg you my ass!"

Bang—

Xie Yunzhou rushed up and delivered a kick, knocking the other party directly to the ground.

Immediately after, he sat on him and rained down punches like raindrops.

The Black-robed Man screamed in pain.

At this moment, Jiang He stepped forward, and ripped the black robe off his head: "I want to see who you are, always acting mysterious and not daring to show your face."

The next second, Jiang He froze.

"Old, Old Demon?"

He was completely stunned.

Old Demon should have been in Chang'an City, right? How could he be here?

He suddenly seemed to think of something, and his expression suddenly became very ugly.

Bai Luoyao, Blood Blade... they had all met in reality.

Only this brother, Old Demon, whom he had fought alongside, had never shown his face.

Could it be that he had been lurking from the very beginning?

Jiang He froze for a few seconds, then stared at the Man in Black Robe with bloodshot eyes: "Why did you do this?"

But the other party looked confused and roared: "Only by becoming the people of God can you gain eternal life! You ants will die sooner or later, all of you will die... Hahaha..."

Jiang He was so angry that he pushed Xie Yunzhou away, grabbed the Man in Black Robe by the collar instead, and roared: "Speak! Why did you do this!"

The Man in Black Robe frowned tightly: "If you want to kill me, just do it; stop asking these nonsensical questions."

Jiang He's hands were shaking with anger.

He stood up and said coldly: "Still pretending, huh?"

Whoosh—

A red magic orb condensed in his hand.

"I'll give you one last chance. Why on earth did you betray us?"