Chapter 172. The Battlefield Where a Bad Relationship Is Sealed
Seo-woon took off his invisibility cloak for the first time in a long time, put it on, and disappeared into the darkness.
There were three reasons he decided to attack the castle alone. First, it was still very early in the game. In the early stages, it was clear the enemy forces were still weak.
Second, it was night. Since it was the first night of the game, the enemy wasn't expecting an attack at this time. Even if they were prepared, they wanted to catch them off guard by attacking before dawn. At midnight, all areas of the map except the castle would be locked down, so attempting a night siege carried great risk.
He believed the enemy would think the same, making this surprise attack worthwhile. The third reason, of course, was the siege rules. While a normal siege required capturing the castle and defeating all the enemies, Cloyd's siege was different. The siege ended when the castle lord was killed or the flag atop the keep was lowered.
This difference was significant. The team members seemed to overlook this unusual game rule, but its importance in the early stages was immense. "That means we can capture the castle and escape." Seo-woon's lips curled upwards as he remembered the game rules he'd carefully studied after capturing the first castle in Gojoji.
– A unit that fails to capture or defend a castle once becomes the remaining force and cannot attack that castle again until 24 hours have passed. In other words, if you can capture the castle by surprise or defeat the enemy attempting to capture it even once, you won't be in danger from the same quadrant for at least 24 hours.
When defending, you have to kill the enemy unit leader or drive the enemy at least 1 kilometer away from the castle for the defense to be recognized, but a siege was different.
"Just infiltrate the inner keep and cut down the flagpole." Seo-woon's team had successfully captured the castle on the left side of Parryongji and the castle on the right side of Daryongji. Seo-woon chose Daryongji.
After constantly checking the map, he realized that Daryongji turned blue about 30 minutes later than Parryongji. This meant they would inevitably be slower in preparation than Daryongji.
Seo-woon looked up at the pitch-black sky, a faint orange glow emanating like a bruise, and glanced at the digital watch on his left wrist. "Just a hair." While there were some discrepancies due to the time difference, about four hours had passed since sunset. He wasn't sure when the sun set here, but it was clear that the time for the reverse spell to take effect was approaching.
Just as he was beginning to worry, a castle much larger than Gojoji and Parangji castles appeared in the distance. Five bright magical lights emanating from the watchtower illuminated the castle, preparing it for any potential enemies. Seo-woon began to approach the castle, avoiding the steadily moving, intersecting lights.
As he carefully climbed the castle wall, Seo-woon held a special item in his right hand. It was a transparent crystal with red smoke swirling inside. – Kaint's Nightmare. It traps enemies with a stat difference of two times or more in a nightmare similar to reality for four hours. It was among the items he last stole from Kimchi-sang, but for some reason, he had a lot of them.
Actually, Cloyd wasn't a particularly useful item in his possession. It wasn't possible to kill an enemy player trapped in a nightmare while they were unconscious. This was because the enemy player was trapped inside the crystal along with their physical body.
Besides, if the enemy's stats were twice as high, it was better to kill them cleanly than to trap them with this item.
"But right now, it's a big help for me."
With that thought, Seo-woon jumped off the city wall as soon as the light passed over his head. "Huh? The guard… isn't here?" Seo-woon, who had been quite nervous considering there would be a mage and guard on duty due to the intense lighting, relaxed. If that were the case, he couldn't understand why they'd set up these magical lights.
Seo-woon carefully peered inside the outer wall. As he'd expected, there were no soldiers or players, and it was completely empty. He carefully climbed down the city wall and entered the darkest corner, where he carefully activated his Fire Eye. In the pitch darkness, a single red dot began to glow intensely.
"Thirty-six... No, thirty-seven."
Inside the keep, he could see the players gathered around a large round table in the center. Seeing that the defenses were much weaker than he'd expected, Seo-woon began to advance slowly. He entered through the inner gate, which was wide enough for one person to pass through, and climbed the walls to the third floor, near the meeting room where the enemies were gathered, listening intently.
"However, our alliance secured four stars. This castle we captured is the largest among them. We can accommodate up to 15,000 soldiers. The problem is military supplies and the main force's demand..." "Even if it's the main force with officers, isn't it unreasonable to request 2,000 soldiers in the early stages of the game?
To be honest, most of the alliance members are people I've never met before in this game. Even the officers—I've never played with them before. Requesting troops without any explanation... We should at least stabilize this castle before making such a request."
"You're right. In terms of scale, defending this castle, which is the largest castle we've captured, should be our priority. Just because there's a main force doesn't mean it's the largest.
Registering the castle lord in the name of an officer and then taking soldiers is very selfish. Especially with that Jin Seo-woon in the neighboring castle." The knight's words were filled with spite towards the officers.
"To be honest, I think it was a mistake to report anything about early recruitment. We finally had bronze and steel cavalry, and now we're about to lose them."But we can't lie to the main force…"
"I joined the unit to help each other and increase our survival rate, not to increase the officer survivability and be exploited. If we have to sacrifice soldiers tomorrow, we'll have to use every ration we have. The reason we haven't registered soldiers yet is because we don't have enough rations.
Asking us to transfer registered soldiers because the main base's fortress is small is the same as asking us to give up all our rations to defend the main base. No matter how I think about it, I can't carry out that order."
Most of the unit members nodded in agreement with the warrior's words. Seo-woon, who was secretly watching from outside the window, pursed her lips. "There's not an ounce of camaraderie or loyalty among them. But still, a makeshift group thrown together out of necessity wouldn't be bound by any bond of trust or camaraderie."
When they could help each other and create synergy, they could leverage their numerical strength, but when conflicts arose, the unit would inevitably crumble like grains of sand.
The unit leader and officers played a crucial role in minimizing this flaw. They should establish clear rules that the members could trust and follow, set an example, and strictly avoid any actions outside these rules. But from what he heard, the other unit looked completely different. Seo-woon smiled and leaped to the top of the inner wall as if there was nothing else to listen to.
Seo-woon crouched down, watching the flags flutter in the night wind and waiting, his eyes fixed on the distant horizon. After waiting for a while, he saw the force field outside the castle activate. He had only seen the force field shrink, but now, for the first time, he saw the entire world outside the castle being engulfed by it, and it felt like something new to him.
He looked at the vast blue force field spreading before him and waved his hand.
– Snap! With a flick of his hand, a blast of energy flew out, cutting cleanly through the steel flagpole. As the flag fluttered and fell to the ground, a The announcement echoed. "Gojo Castle Lord Jin Seo-woon has captured Gangryong Castle from Parkin's Dial."
At the same time, the enemies burst out of the keep and looked helplessly at their flags falling to the ground. A magician looking at the top of the keep belatedly pointed at Seo-woon and shouted. "There!"
At the same time, the enemies' eyes turned to Seo-woon. "Exiled." As the players prepared their attacks and unleashed their anger on Seo-woon, their figures disappeared from the castle.
"Fools. You should have checked the rules properly."
– Defeated soldiers who have lost the authority to attack or defend the castle cannot remain inside the castle without the castle lord's permission. When the castle lord's exile authority is activated, all defeated soldiers are expelled from the castle.
Deciding to go out and start producing as soon as the stationmaster's event ended, Seo-woon began reviewing the castle's information one by one.
"There are zero soldiers, but 8,000 rations are registered.A magic lighthouse? That's an item too. Did they build an armory? I wonder if there are any items for upgrading the castle."
After reviewing the large castle's information for a while, Seo-woon started a team voice chat. "Sagwang. After the team members defending the castle and the stationmaster finish their jobs, start producing. There seem to be items that can be used to upgrade the castle, so focus on producing the materials needed for defense."
"Understood."
"Good job."
"Good job!"
"Well done, priest." – With this, if we capture the castle in Dalryungji, we can at least secure the front on this side. We can rest assured for now.
– Yes. After finishing the team voice chat, Seo-woon set his wristwatch to 12:30 and went outside.
"It should be around here."
When he looked around the area where he felt his life force dwindle when the enemies were driven out of the castle, he saw 37 boxes scattered around. Steel cannons, bronze cannons, and tan cannons appeared in equal numbers. There were more soldiers than he'd expected, but Seo-woon didn't care. "Hoarding would just be a waste. The soldiers here are expendable anyway. The important thing is to produce for a constant supply of resources."
Seo-woon was thinking of a strategy simulation game he often played. Build a safe base camp, produce there, and use the resources you obtain to constantly attack enemies. "There's no such thing as too many soldiers. In the early stages, we can overcome the manpower shortage with numbers."
After making his decision, Seo-woon immediately registered all the soldiers he had gathered.
Gangryeongji Fortress. Number of soldiers: 400/15,000
Having withdrawn all his soldiers from the castle and evacuated the largest castle he had just captured, Seo-woon led his soldiers towards Dalryeongji Fortress without hesitation.
– …
– Okay. Let's meet near Dalungji in five hours. We're all cavalry here.
– Yes! After finishing their conversation with the team members guarding the castle in Palryeongji, the team members in Goyojiji who were producing in a corner asked anxiously.
– Will you be okay without us? "We're still okay. Keep producing as much as you can. If you feel like you're not dropping items, cross the bridge and go back and produce."
Seo-woon responded to Dump's words and encouraged his cavalrymen, made of steel, bronze, and yellow clay, to speed up. "I think the speed varies depending on the soldiers' ranks."
The yellow clay soldiers were slower than the bronze soldiers, and the bronze soldiers were slower than the steel soldiers. The speed differences between each rank weren't that great, but they gradually began to widen, and the gap between the yellow clay soldiers and the steel soldiers increased significantly.
But Seo-woon didn't bother closing the gap and simply kept running. He wanted to start the siege before sunrise to catch the enemy off guard. Prejudices are dangerous.
Would a player start the game without gathering troops and launch a siege? Would an enemy invade at night with little time left? An enemy,After finishing two sieges, could he really start a third without resting?
In a famous match between professional players in a strategy simulation game, the player who always came in second was defeated by a "triple bunker" strategy (a Terran strategy using bunkers) and said afterward, "I never imagined they would come three times in a row."
"Don't let your guard down, thinking, 'No way, no way.'
"With that thought, Seo-woon rushed forward and joined his team near Dal-ryungji before dawn.
"Hyung!"
Ki-chan was the first to approach Seo-woon and greet him. Seeing him return alone, having confidently defeated the enemy and brought the soldiers back, there was no more reassuring sight. "The bronze soldiers and the clay soldiers will arrive soon."
"Shall we attack right away?"
"Yes. The enemy doesn't have many more soldiers than us. The plan remains the same. We will scale the walls, open the gates, and storm the keep in one fell swoop. I will go ahead, reconnoiter the enemy, and attack when I give the order. This time, I will be the one opening the gates."
With that, Seo-woon sprinted towards Dal-ryeongji Castle in the distance.
***
"Bad luck is bad luck."
Another man standing next to the man who was looking down from atop the massive keep at the soldiers filling the keep opened his mouth. "We won't lose to him this time." The man who looked just like him nodded in agreement.
"Correct, sir. Warfare is our specialty. When it comes to warfare, there's no one in the empire with more experience than my brothers and you, sir."
"Yes. If we lose to him again, the Gwanggun name will be tarnished."
Senruk and his twin brothers, who were helping him, heard the news that the Jinseun Quadrant had won the third siege battle and glared angrily at the distant place where Gojoji should be.