Rising Against the Wind
It was already well past midnight, yet there were still plenty of players on the forum.
With their real identities exposed, the atmosphere on the forum was extremely tense. However, after The Three Great Guilds released their joint statement, things improved slightly. Since the mysterious website had only existed for a short time and the spreadsheet had no download button, quite a few people still clung to a sense of luck—especially ordinary, unknown players who felt that unless they were particularly unlucky, no one would notice them.
Coupled with the warning from The Three Great Guilds, many players still held onto the illusion that this incident would not affect their normal lives.
But no one had expected that less than ten minutes later, the post in which The Three Great Guilds promised to protect ordinary players would disappear.
It was replaced by another pinned post.
Title: Everyone, come take a look.
Poster: Tenma
Content: I know many of you are feeling anxious and terrified right now. I understand those emotions because I lived through that dark era, that bloody history many of you never experienced. I was there. I was part of it. I witnessed the fall of countless experts with my own eyes. Death and hatred were the eternal themes of that time.
That was also why some of us later spent so much energy and effort establishing order among players, cautiously maintaining this fragile peace.
But now, my friends, it was time to face reality.
In truth, every one of us knew why we had been chosen.
From the moment we entered this mysterious game, there had been no way back. Competition was the eternal theme of this world. Perhaps some of you wanted to argue with me, asking how I knew what those