It was rude of me to leave them so early, but I had no choice. After a few days of travel I arrive before the place I was searching for.
Fortress of Typhoon.
This is one of the few player made structures. It was created after the guild leader won a tournament held by L&L, the prize, you could add anything you wanted into the game. He chose to found a whole new organization with him at the head.
I was met with wonder filled faces, as I walk past both NPCs and players alike. I arrive at the guild hall, where the man I was looking for, sits at the head of a table with countless guildmates.
"Locty." He waves, his strong hands still clenching a map.
"Storm." I arrive at his side, viewing over there battle map, even without me, they came to strategy. There are lines and arrows drawn around, and rooks in the place of fortraces, and pawns as armies. It was surly thanks to the strangest, AKA New World's vice leader, that they have managed to move so fast. But as I am here, I will work to rip down their strategy until it is perfect, without a single hole.
One might consider it strange that the leaders of most guilds are not the ones that plan, but it makes perfect sense to me. This world functions on power not mind, and having someone strong, the members can put their hope in, helps improve morale. As so many great football coaches have said, it is not the skill of their players that allow them to win games, but their drive for victory. This is why the home field advantage exists, when seventy percent of the stadium is rooting for the other team, you can't help but lose hope.
Some generals have also noticed such things, an army that is both better equipped and higher in numbers, can still lose because they were flanked. It was not the flanking itself that made them lose, but their men fearing for their lives. Others have seen the opposite of course, a saying exists, you should not encircle a fearful army. The moment you remove the option of retreat, men tend to fight to their death, showing the ability to fight harder, and kill more of your troops, then if you were to just have fought them normally. That may seem like a contradiction, but it has been observed countless times in history, expressly when masterful generals think they outsmarted their opponent. This is why most battles in history only see a loss rate of about twenty percent, and usually end not in complete destruction of one army, but a route.
Generals like Alexander the Great, would purposely leave an opening for the enemy men to retreat, not because he wanted that outcome, but he knew they would fight with less gusto. Speaking of Alexander, he has used a tactic called general hunting, the moment you cut the head off a snake, all it can do is thrash around blindly. Men will lose morale, and even go as far as questioning why they were fighting in the first place. So having a strong guild leader works to both bolster morale, and decrease the chances of moral shocks. It was said in the Trojan era, that the generals on both sides would come before each other, in a masterful duel of talent. Said things, almost never truly happened, but it is fun to think about. Either way, Scipio, and Hannibal are widely considered the fathers of strategy, and their belt has gone down in history, so anything before them can just be considered barbaric displays of force.
Rookie tacticians that came before Scipio, saw tactics as a shame of military might, they would line their men up in vast columns, and charge at their army. It is as such that Hannibal found them easy prey to his brilliant mind.
Thinking of this I teared the plan to smithreans, and they began the process of reworking it.
I think it gets on the vice leaders' nerves, but I have also been doing this for years, so I guess he might be used to it.
Storm turns to me, his monkey like face with a wide grin
Level 143, ape king, Storm.
"I gotta say Locty, your mind never fails to amaze. Maybe you should have joined the army instead of playing this game."
I can't help but snicker. "It is because I play this game that I honed my mind, I worked tirelessly to be a perfect leader."
"How commendable." A lesser man would have seen this as an insult, but not storm, if there was a better leader, than I haven't met him. He is humble, kind, and easy to get along with, but most of all, when times get tough, he always makes the right call. Well I was chasing after the precision of a modern general, he is more like a general from the warring lords period in China, respectable more than tactical. If you asked me, who was better, him or I, a hundred percent of the time, I would call him the better leader. All I did was read a few books. What he has comes naturally, and I think that is praise worthy. As such, he is one of my greatest friends.
I would come here more often if it wasn't for.
"Loctrace." I turn to see rank eight on the leader boards, and my former girlfriend. Mind you, this is an in game girlfriend, not any of that lovey dovey crap. She is still my ex, and that makes it awkward.
Level 137, high born lizardman, Lotus.
She pulls me down so we are standing eye to eye. "I heard you got a new hussy? Didn't think I was good enough?" She is saying this like we haven't been broken up for a year. "Well I'll be damned if I lose to some NPC." In truth I have known her for quite some time, since the game was made actually, we bumped into each other in the starting village, and decided to team up to conquer the world. We then beat the main story together, and finished off some of the easiest raid bosses. It was around this time that I decided to make a guild, there was just one problem. Her brother made a guild called New World, so she couldn't not join. And we took are separate ways, me a guild master, and her a member of a rival guild. We didn't meet back up until two years later, we caught up with each other, and one thing led to another, dating for seven years. Legally in real life we would basically be marriered, but this was a game, and she got bored, quitting and leaving me behind. So now that I am thinking about it, we never truly broke up, instead just once more taking our separate ways. Oh fuck that ring. I pull mine out of my inventory, how do I explain this to Sophia? I'm a no good cheater, wait no, technically I am not cheating on Sophia, I am cheating on Lotus. Gosh is this how Monster feels, I finally understand why he dropped women like flys, it is so tiring.
Who do I like more? Lotus never made my heart feel the same way Sophia does, so I guess it is… Wait, not those dark memories, damn I guess I was a perve after all, I used to dream of asking Lotus out on a date in real life. I never grew the balls, but would she have accepted?
"Hey Lotus." She tilts her head cutely. "Let me guess you're fat and ugly in real life."
I promptly, and may I add deservingly, get slapped in the face.
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