Game of Thrones: The Black Dragon King

Outside Meereen after nightfall, Reid and his men awaited the assassins' move.

Changing plans at the last minute usually leads to unexpected problems, but if one word could describe the beginning of this robbery, it would be "smooth," unexpectedly smooth.

Meereen, being the closest of the three slave-trading city-states to the Dothraki Grasslands, gives the impression of having enjoyed a long period of peace and neglecting military preparedness.

Perhaps because of its crucial role in trade routes, commerce played a far greater role than the military in defending cities.

As the assassin hurled his grappling hook, Reed worried that it would alert the city's defense forces, but after a few barely audible screams, the entire city wall fell silent, and a moment later, the city gate slowly opened.

In Reid's personal opinion, the screeching sound of the door hinges rubbing together was louder than the sound of an assassin scurrying around.

A small group of Arab warriors and archers were left to guard the retreat route, while the main force quickly surged toward the second largest pyramid. Thanks to Pardara for the detailed introduction, the way was easy to find, right next to the first largest pyramid.

In complete darkness, guided by the faint moonlight and the lingering glow of lights from the surrounding buildings, the entire group moved swiftly along the streets of Meereen, led by the assassin.

The lead assassins, well-concealed by their black robes and attire in the darkness, were easily spotted by the city guards patrolling with torches. They slipped through the shadows, cleanly and silently eliminating their enemies, and continued their advance, soon arriving at the foot of the Pardara family's pyramid.

Archers were deployed on the perimeter to prevent any escapees, while assassins led heavily armored Arab warriors in a raid.

The arsonist slave soldiers, carrying the drawings Reed had made during the day, scattered to find their own targets, waiting for the city's defense forces to react before setting fires and creating chaos, thus buying Reed time for his operation.

Dressed in Arabic-style lord's attire, with a turban and a mask covering his face, Reid waited at the entrance of the pyramid, leaning on a scimitar.

It's best not to risk your life in close-quarters combat indoors. No matter how much difference there is in the quality of the soldiers, they can still be ambushed by the defenders who are familiar with the terrain in a confined space.

Initially, guided by the assassins, the infiltrators silently eliminated a large number of guards and successfully occupied the first level of the pyramid. However, in the chaos, oversights soon occurred. Perhaps it was the hidden sentries, or perhaps the rapidly spreading scent of blood, that alerted the guards on other levels. The raiding forces encountered sporadic resistance.

Immediately afterwards, urgent bells rang out from the top of the pyramid, and beacon fires were lit. A large number of enemies wielding spears and shields surged forth from around the intruders. Using the line of sight of the soldiers in front, Reed recognized the enemies: the Unsullied!

The sneak attack failed...

Although I had expected it, there was still a moment of discomfort when my shady dealings were suddenly exposed.

Reed ran his hand into his turban and scratched his scalp, which was starting to feel numb from the tightness, then ordered the arsonist slaves to begin setting fires. Since petty theft wasn't an option, they might as well resort to open fire.

Arab warriors, relying on their full suits of heavy armor, boldly charged into the Unsullied's formation, hacking and slashing. The Unsullied, in turn, relied on their formation to fight back, their spears always managing to pierce the Arab warriors' unprotected eye sockets from tricky angles.

Both sides quickly engaged in a bloody battle, with the assassins and Arab warriors suffering heavy losses in a short period, while our side also inflicted significant casualties. According to information provided by Pardala, the Daznak family has approximately 600 Unsullied soldiers, and Reid speculates that at least half of them must be Unsullied guards protecting the family's main residences and wealth.

The raging fires plunged the entire city of Meereen into chaos, quickly diverting the attention of the city's defense forces. They split into multiple groups to extinguish the fires and hunt down the arsonist slaves who were running amok, giving Reid more time to act.

After the archers on the perimeter shot down and dispersed the small group of city defense troops, mainly slave soldiers, Reid decisively ordered the arsonist slaves to set fire to the upper structure of the pyramid, preventing the upper-level defenders from joining the defense and concentrating the attacking forces to eliminate the lower-level defenders first.

After all, getting the money is the most important thing.

As more people joined, the two hundred Unsullied guarding the vault were quickly wiped out. Reid also lost more than thirty assassins and nearly two hundred Arab warriors. Both sides were fearless warriors, and the result was that the light infantry managed to trade more than one for one with the heavy armor units. As expected of the elite troops renowned throughout the continent of Essos, they were flawless except for their high price.

The basement door was locked from the inside; the commotion had taken too long, giving the people inside ample time to react. The remaining Arab warriors spontaneously found a rough log, lifted it together, and began ramming the door.

Under the protection of Arab warriors, Reed arrived at the final checkpoint. The door to the underground vault was covered with bronze for fireproofing and reinforced with iron bars. Moreover, the door opened outwards, and the door panel was significantly larger than the doorway behind it. This allowed the stone wall behind to provide great support for the door panel. The narrow passageway could only accommodate two people side by side at most, and the Arab warrior, carrying a log hammer, could not move freely.

Judging from the arc of the door shaking after several impacts, it wasn't very effective.

An impatient Reed yelled, "Get the axe!"

After a chaotic search, two tall warriors took turns hacking at the door panel with heavy claw hammers, as if they were striking iron. The soft bronze was quickly chipped open, revealing the hardwood door panel inside.

The strong men in front were exhausted, and those behind immediately took their place. Anxious, Reid paced back and forth, both fearing the fire above would fall and that the city guards would be free to attack him.

After what seemed like an eternity of anxious waiting, the Arab warriors finally managed to break open a hole in the door, big enough to reach in. One of them tried to reach in and unscrew the bolt, then cried out in alarm and pulled his hand back. A brightly colored venomous snake was still attached to the dark blue back of his hand.

"Cut off his hand! Pour in the lamp oil and light it!" Reed commanded coldly.

The wounded Arab warrior pulled back his chainmail to reveal his elbow. In an instant, another Arab warrior flashed his blade and severed the arm and the venomous snake together. His companion, wearing a high-heeled leather boot, stomped on the still writhing snake's head.

Boiling oil was poured into the hole in the door, and several torches were thrown in. Flames immediately erupted inside, followed by screams. The Arab warriors, enduring the excruciating pain of the burning flames, unlatched the door, and the gate was pulled open. The large group of men rushed in and extinguished the flames.

After entering the basement, Red's eyes didn't turn into gold coins as he had expected. The small basement only contained about a hundred locked small boxes laid out on the floor.

He smashed the lock, opened the chest, only to find it contained a mere half-full box of gold. Disappointed, he kicked the chest, but it didn't budge; instead, it made Reed's toes ache terribly.

"Foolish thief! You have no idea how heavy this lovely gold is!" The miser, whose face was half burned and whose body was covered with several venomous snakes, panted and laughed bitterly. "One chest costs 30,000 gold coins and weighs 1,200 pounds. It would take eight strong slaves to lift it."

"There are only ten chests of loose gold coins here, the rest are whole gold and silver bars weighing a thousand pounds. You went to great lengths to break in, but you can't take away this wealth! The city guards will be here soon, and you will all be nailed to the cross. My light, my master, this old lapdog has dutifully guarded your wealth to the very end, and I even mocked the foolish robbers for you, hahaha..." Like master, servant is likely to follow suit, just like Red's "friend" Pardara. The old miser told Red detailed information with a mocking expression.

With a wave of his hand, the Arab warrior swiftly silenced him.

Reid also realized that precious metals are indeed both expensive and heavy! Gold has an extremely high density. A gold coin worth 133 million gold dragons weighs about 60 tons, but its volume is only a little over three cubic meters. In those scenes in movies and TV shows where two people work together to carry a large box of treasure, if the gold coins inside were real, the weight would be enough to break the axle of the sturdiest four-wheeled carriage. Ordinary people simply couldn't lift it.

Logically speaking, the old miser is right. Faced with this otherworldly version of "helplessness," unless one has the ability to conquer the entire city-state, a small group of people cannot take away much wealth under the siege of the city's defense forces.

However, Reed is a cheater.

The Arab warriors smashed the locks one by one, opened the money chests, and as Rhett's large hand swept over them, the gold coins, gold bricks, and silver ingots inside vanished instantly, transforming into the ever-increasing gold coin balance on the system interface.

Ten thousand, twenty thousand... one hundred thousand, one million! In less than fifteen minutes, Reed transformed from a ten-thousand-yuan household to a millionaire!

Reid opened the panel and dismissed the heavily wounded soldier. The wounded soldier, who was originally on the verge of death, instantly lost his equipment, transformed into an ordinary refugee, bowed, and disappeared on the spot. This was a very useful system bug; even if the soldier was at low health, dismissing him would turn him into a refugee with full health. By spending gold and equipment to recruit him again, he would have a soldier with full health once more.

"To the Grand Arena!" Reed ordered.

The soldiers acted spontaneously, overturning oil lamps and braziers along the way, and throwing out their torches haphazardly to create chaos and hinder the pursuit.

Escorted by Arab warriors, Reid swiftly retreated from the Pardara family's pyramid and ran at breakneck speed through the chaotic streets.

The scattered, arsonist slaves kept the small city defense force busy, and the scattered small groups of men were no match for Reid's army, which soon reached the entrance to the Great Arena.

Compared to the crowds during the day, the Daznak Arena is unusually deserted at night. The powerful and robust gladiator statues appear eerie in the darkness, while the white harpy statues, with their faces obscured, seem somewhat fleshy.

Because of the grand athletic performance that took place during the day, there are currently only a few imprisoned beasts and gladiators, and of course, a dragon, inside the arena. However, there aren't many guards, as the previous commotion and fires have alerted them, and they are now fully armed and assembled at the entrance.

Without Reed's order, the archers drew their bows and fired, the Arab warriors charged in first, and the assassins followed closely behind, their drawn swords gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

There were no tricks involved, just a pure head-on collision. Compared to the elite Unsullied, these slave soldiers were clearly far inferior in combat strength. After more than a dozen of them were killed, they began to scatter, fleeing and hiding into the arena.