Chapter 73: Snow Angel’s Crises Xiaxia decided to shift the focus away from her and Xin. "Enough about that. Let’s talk about why you two came here in the first place."
Scarlet and Marry’s expressions shifted to a more serious note, and Xin sensed the change in the room’s atmosphere.
Unconsciously, he turned his attention in their direction and overheard their conversation while he prepared some snacks.
"If we don’t take action regarding the guild, we’ll continue losing members at this rate," Scarlet began.
"But what can we even do? Our members are already leaving left and right. We don’t have enough members to tackle dungeons anymore," Marry added.
Scarlet let out a chuckle. "Well, at least Snow Angel would be remembered as the first guild to lose hundreds of members in a single day. Plummeting from the top two hundred to one thousand in just two days."
"This is a serious issue, not something to laugh about," Xiaxia growled. "At this pace, we won’t have enough members to keep the guild functioning, and we might end up being disbanded."
"Disbanded?" Xin interjected as he brought over the sandwiches and juice.
"Thank you," Marry said.
"You’re very sweet." Scarlet playfully brushed her hand against Xin’s while taking the juice. "Are you single?"
"Scarlet!" Xiaxia’s voice carried a warning.
Scarlet quickly withdrew her hand and stifled a laugh. "Just kidding."
"Get serious, and my brother is off-limits."
Scarlet raised her hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. I’ll behave before you burst a blood vessel there."
"What do you mean by ’disbanded’?" Xin asked again, his curiosity piqued.
Marry explained, "If a guild has fewer than fifty members, it faces disbandment."
"Previously, the requirement was just twenty members, but due to the increase in guild formations, they made the criteria more stringent," Scarlet added.
"How many members you have left?" Xin asked.
"Currently? Only the two of us. Three if you count Xiaxia here," Scarlet said with a laugh. "The others simply didn’t care about the guild."
"I told you that this is no laughing matter." Xiaxia sighed. "We’ve already received a warning from the system that if we don’t retain fifty players within a month of the notice, they will erase Snow Angels in Guildbane."
". . ."
". . ."
Xin felt the tension and sadness from the three despite Scarlet’s smile and Marry’s calm face. He was more worried about Xiaxia because this was her guild, and he could feel that she didn’t want to lose it.
"Then you should just have to recruit more members, right?" Xin said.
Scarlet sighed with a shrug. "Better said than done. No one wanted to join a guild that’s in thousands in rankings."
"Others who joined in left the next day," added Marry.
"It’s not an issue, really," Scarlet said. "A lot of guilds get erased every day." She then looked at Xiaxia, gauging her reaction. "It’s simply too hard to maintain a guild right now because of the competition and even harder to maintain loyal guild members who would for the guild to the death."
"There’s a lot of guilds out there," Marry said to Xiaxia gently. "Maybe it’s time to let go and just . . . enter a new guild."
Scarlet pressed Xiaxia’s shoulder and comforted her. "I think it’s for the best. We won’t be so stressed anymore about managing everyone, and we can have more time to enjoy the game for once."
". . ." Xiaxia was silent for a moment before she forced out a smile. "Maybe you’re right. It’s just . . . it’s our first guild, and I didn’t want it to end like this. Remember the time when we first built it?"
Scarlet smiled. "Yeah. Those were the days. I remember that we first met in the game, and then just after a few days, you decided to form a guild. Then named it Snow Angels."
"What’s wrong with that? I was thinking of creating a girl’s guild," Xiaxia defended herself.
"It’s too girly, and I told you that we would have a problem if it’s an all-girls guild," said Scarlet while shaking his head with a small smile on her face. "Girls are not built like boys. We simply couldn’t keep up. It’s the reason why you said yes to that jerk face in the first place to attract men into the guild and raise our rankings."
Xiaxia pouted. "I still wanted it to be an all-girls guild . . . but I guess that it’s impossible for someone like me who’s not in the ranking and didn’t have the resources."
"You’re a good player," said Scarlet.
"Yeah, well . . . good is still not enough. Everyone wants someone rich or some godlike players."
Marry chuckled as she reminisced. "At that time, it’s easier to form a guild and recruit members. Everyone was so excited."
"Yeah . . ." Xiaxia took a deep breath. "Now it’s simply too hard to build one and maintain it."
The girls talk some more, reminiscent of their times together. It looked like they discussed fond memories before finally letting go of their attachment to their guild.
"Do you want to maintain the guild?" Xin interjected.
"I want to," said Xiaxia. "But it’s simply impossible now."
"It’s not."
All attention went to Xin.
Xiaxia’s eye narrowed. "Do you have a plan?"
Xin nodded. "You just have to offer a challenge to one of the top two hundred guilds and retain your spot there."
". . ."
". . ."
The girl’s jaw drops.
"Xin, what are you even saying?!" Xiaxia’s voice went loud without her notice from how shocked she was by her brother’s outrageous suggestion. "We’re in no position to issue challenges to other guilds. We don’t have anything to offer. And even if we have, there’s only three of us who would really fight to the death."
"Xiaxia’s right," Scarlet seconded. "We don’t have any resources. Our Guild Storage is empty our gil negative. Our members aren’t loyal enough to even heed a command. We can’t simply afford a war, even to a guild that’s ranked last."
Xiaxia and the girls went quiet suddenly. When they said it theirselves it was only when they felt the situation sinking in, and their faces were a mixture of sadness and frustration.
Xin placed a hand over Xiaxia’s shoulder. "Don’t lose hope just yet. If you don’t have the resources to bait a guild to accept your challenge, I have that covered."