Chapter 989 Reading The Opponent Like An Open Book (Part 1): Arrangements

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Immortal scanned and briefly scanned their surroundings and noticed that they were currently in the part of the city where there were a lot of structures. It was indeed a perfect place to hide and lay an ambush.

He had to admit that he got careless once again. Due to the urgency of the situation and based on the sound of the intense battle coming from the distance, he thought that the opposing party was currently occupied on the other side.

He had gotten greedy as well. After seeing the high compatibility of the possible Doom Knight, he wanted to see the vessel and turn it into one of his special undead monsters as soon as possible.

He then turned to Zero, who was still calmly walking toward them. His unhurried pace signified that they were confident in this particular ambush.

Fortunately, the rest of their group was able to regain their composure before it was too late. They only had five opponents currently, so they could rely on their numbers to suppress the opposing side.

'I refuse to believe that you can send enough members to deal with us when the battle on that side is that intense,' thought Immortal before giving a series of orders while keeping an eye on Zero.

Due to his timely command, the group was able to quickly reorganized themselves and hold their ground against the four monstrous assailants.

Shin and Faker were now completely occupied with the members of the Earners Mercenary Group. Those guys really lived up to their reputation as they were able to quickly regain their footing and respond with their satiation properly.

Even if they lost their marksman and shaman, they still fearlessly launched a series of attacks on the two without holding back. They dealt with the situation and took advantage of their numbers.

Moreover, they also have a priest on their side, so they could just recklessly throw themselves at their opponents. As long as they properly put their guards up and avoid getting one-shotted by the two, everything would be fine.

Seeing that their opponents finally regained themselves, Shin and Faker decided to temporally cease their attacks and retreated.

On the other hand, Leonard and Lawless also failed to gain a solid advantage on their side. With Elise, Jugo, and Justin personally dealing with them, they couldn't firmly grasp a good opportunity to increase their gains.

Dealing with these three Godlike Players and the rest of the Silent Night was still not an easy task even if the two of them were currently in the state of Reality Manifestation.

Just like Shin and Faker, the two also decided temporarily retreat.

Naturally, Immortal and the others would not let that happen. After suffering from the ambush, they refuse to let those four just run away like that. They quickly increased their pace and forced the four to stay.

That was only the moment when Zero made his move. After seeing the predicament of the four, he quickly charged forward, seemingly trying to give a cover.

Unfortunately, Immortal personally faced him, preventing the Sword God to lessen the pressure the four were facing. Afterward, he ordered the rest to quickly give their all at attacking Shin and the others.

Seeing the actions of the opposing side and the restless response of Zero, Immortal became confident that they didn't bring enough numbers to their side. He was suspecting that Shin and the others were only betting on bluffs to intimidate their group.

The previous ambushes also became more understandable in his eyes two. Immortal had no idea about the Reality Manifestation, so he was only suspecting that Shin and the others only used a one-time special method for that ambush earlier.

'They might be betting that they could take us by surprise earlier and kill as many of our members as possible while we are currently intimidated!' thought Immortal after seeing the restless assault from Zero.

'Unfortunately for them, we are able to reorganize ourselves rather quickly,' he added as he couldn't help but grin evilly.

Unfortunately, he couldn't summon his undead monsters recklessly now. He had already spent quite a lot of mana potions earlier when he was fighting Chaotic Luck, so only had a limited number of them right now.

Moreover, he also needed to save as much mana as possible because he would be needing them for the activation of the [Records of Undead] later.

He actually didn't care about the well-being of Silent Night and Earners. As long as he could get his hands on the vessel for his Doom Knight and corrupt the slumbering Guardian Dragon, he could use these people as disposable pieces.

But before he threw them, he first needed them to serve their purpose – to be his meat shield until he achieved his goal, so he also couldn't let them die that easily.

And if he could also kill these nuisances along the way, then he would refuse such a bonus reward?

Unfortunately for him, he didn't know that he was only dancing at the palm of his opponent.

…

Know yourself, know your enemy, and know the battle – master these thing things and you would not lose a single battle.

This was an important lesson that people could learn from the Art of War. And as someone who was trained in a Mafia Training Camp and grew up in a Military Family, Shin was very familiar with such things.

He had faced Immortal multiple times already and he somewhat understood this so-called Lich God. From his attitude, his background within the game, his fighting style, and his habits as well as his past achievements, Shin already studied them thoroughly.

Adding the previous clashes that he had with Immortal, Shin could say that he knew this opponent confidently. One of the proofs was when he read some of the latter's plans earlier.

Shin was always a couple of steps ahead of Immortal.

And when he learned about the possible objective of the opposing side, the game was practically over.

Immortal would never expect that Shin was actually reading him now like an open book.

Shin had already formulated a solid plan to crush this guy the moment everything became clear to his eyes.

He knew how greedy Immortal could be. And when he added his infamous reputation, Shin knew very well that Immortal was plotting something behind the back of his current 'comrades'.

This was the reason why he kept targeting Immortal during their collisions. It was not only because he was strong and the strategist of the group, but also the real target that needed to be taken down.

The Teleportation Formation was just a bonus earlier.

Training Chaotic Luck was also just a secondary reason why he tasked the guy to face such a formidable opponent. The real reason for that arrangement was to exhaust the resources that Immortal had.

Shin even instructed Chaotic Luck not to hold back from using his mana potions during the battle. It was in order to force Immortal to burn more potions of his own.

With such a limited number of resources, Shin knew that Immortal would sooner or later run out of mana. And when that time came, he would be nothing but a lamp presented on a chopping block, waiting to be butchered

Shin was also aware of Immortal's cunningness. He knew that this scheming fox might save as many resources as possible until he got his hands on the body of Grand Marshal Draco and corrupted the Guardian Dragon underneath the city.

He could even sacrifice his 'comrades' to achieve it. And based on the incidents of backstabbing his own people, Shin could even see Immortal turning the people accompanying him into powerful undead servants.

In that scenario, he would not be suffering such losses. Gaining an additional number of undead monsters would always be beneficial to necromancers, especially for him who was entitled to be the Lich God.

Regardless of the choice that Immortal was going to make, it would be a win-win situation for Shin and the others.

Even if Immortal gained something from this incident, it would be fine. After all, it was impossible to win everything. But as long as they get the longer end of the stick, it was their win.

Naturally, Shin would not passively wait for Immortal to make his choice. Instead, he would be forcing the latter for it.

This was the reason why he created this ambush with a 'limited' number of assailants. It was to give the opposing side a false impression that they didn't have all of their members in this battle.

If Shin led the others to face Immortal and their group head-on, then the latter would surely be on guard even if they had the advantage in numbers.

And when the group battle broke, even if Shin were confident with their group, the price they would pay would still be massive, especially when they couldn't afford to lose even a single member.

A single death was equivalent to that person failing their quest which also lead to them permanently losing their character.

At the very least, the group could make Immortal and the others wary of them when they ambush like what they were doing right now.

By hiding their real numbers, the opposing side would not only be wary of them, but they would also have the false sense of having the advantage.

And when it was finally time to reveal their cards, it was already too late for their opponents to save the situation.

They had already fallen deep into the trap that Shin had perfectly laid – caught and could not escape.

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