SSG 232

Episode 232

“But even up to that point, things weren’t exactly going well. No matter how much it was for strategy, we really did give up the outer castle entirely. We were still outnumbered, too.”

“In the end, even the inner castle was breached. All that was left was the city hall.”

“For those who don’t know, if you lose the city hall, it’s over. No matter how much strength you have left, it’s a loss for the city.”

“If we weren’t careful, strategy or not, it would’ve all been over just like that.”

“But that’s when our real plan started.”

“Until then, the Moradin and Prozhenhau armies always retreated early at the slightest disadvantage, but during street fighting in the inner castle, they began desperately blocking the enemies.”

“The enemies couldn’t break through the defensive line easily. They even looked flustered at such fierce resistance for the first time.”

“But there was just one area where we deliberately acted like we were being pushed back, retreating all the way to the city hall.”

“That was where the Calamity Guild was.”

“Everyone knows what kind of guild Calamity is, right?”

<A trash guild, aren’t they?>

<They’re just like those Yua Chimdae bastards.>

“You all know well. That trashy Calamity almost became the MVP of the war.”

“Obviously, the Yua Chimdae thugs were freaking out. They knew exactly what the Calamity guys were like.”

“But since Calamity is trash, and Yua Chimdae is trash too. You think they’d just sit back and watch? Since they’re the same kind, if Calamity took the city hall first, everyone knew what they’d do next.”

“So, what choice do you think Yua Chimdae made, everyone?”

<Oh, no way>

<LOL, it’s obvious>

<I can see it coming, LOL>

“You all guessed it. They backstabbed Calamity.”

<LOL, of course>

<Classic Yua Chimdae move, LOL>

<If it’s a backstab, it’s gotta be them, LOL>

“Honestly, we thought it was possible, but seeing them actually fight was amazing.”

“They really were fools. Anyway, as per the plan, we succeeded in setting those two guilds against each other, which reduced the enemy’s strength in real time and bought us time.”

“The next target was Arc College. Honestly, they were the easiest by far. Because they hadn’t recovered the Rainbow Crystals they had given to their NPC soldiers.”

“If you want to invade a city, of course you have to use Rainbow Crystals. That goes for NPC soldiers too. You have to give each one a crystal.”

<Wow, come to think of it, you’re right>

<That’s a lot of money>

“Exactly. Invasion is never easy. But while the other guilds recovered Rainbow Crystals from their NPCs before the fighting started, these guys just left them.”

“Probably because they aren’t used to war. Maybe they didn’t imagine they’d lose in the first place.”

<With five guilds allied, who can blame them?>

“Soldiers who die in battle drop their gear. Of course, that included crystals. Of course those had the coordinates of their cities marked, right?”

“And except for Yooseong’s city, all our other cities still had their forces completely intact.”

<Oh, that’s->

<LOL, this is a counterstrike angle.>

“That’s right. You get it. We used those coordinates to attack their cities.”

“Since nearly all their forces were poured into invading Moradin, it was way too easy to take their cities. We almost felt guilty about it.”

“The guys in Moradin went wild trying to rush back after finding out their cities were under attack. But did we need to just let them leave?”

<LOL, you can come in as you please, but you won’t get out so easily>

“Because the Yua Chimdae guys started attacking Calamity, Yooseong had some breathing room. Using those forces, he went after Arc College. That was the end for Arc College, too.”

“So, with Yua Chimdae and Calamity fighting each other and Arc College out, only Agora and Gunwoonghoe were left, right?”

“Those two, even together, weren’t as strong as any of the others. They never could’ve held out against Yooseong’s attack.”

“So we took them down and got the Rainbow Crystals. Even if they’d recovered their NPCs’ crystals, the players were still carrying them. As for the recovered NPCs’ crystals, the guild master had them. Since there were so many, anyone who died was guaranteed to drop some.”

“Of course, after getting the crystal’s coordinates, we took their cities as well.”

“Around then, the fight between Yua Chimdae and Calamity was decided. Yua Chimdae won.”

“But, so what?”

<LOL, it’s meaningless>

<LOL, all their allied guilds were wiped out already>

<Unless the whole Yua Chimdae came, LOL>

“The final step was bringing all our guild members to Moradin for a dramatic, all-out counterattack.”

“And that’s how we, Total Demolition, won the war! Waaah! Clap clap clap clap!”

<Waaaahhhh!>

<Clapping with your mouth, that’s infuriating>

“As a result, we took every city owned by Calamity, Arc College, Agora, and Gunwoonghoe.”

“Unfortunately, on Apollon’s side, we only managed to capture Delphi and Delos. Honestly, we had to keep an eye out for the other Yua Chimdae forces.”

<The Python faction still remains there>

<Now the Yua Chimdae leadership will go to Python, I guess>

<There was some serious infighting, right?>

<I heard just from rumors that it was bloody over there>

<Still, even with the reins, Python can’t be happy about losing two cities>

<Delphi and Delos were important cities even for Yua Chimdae because Apollon put so much into them>

As viewers chatted about C.O.T.S., the guild members of Total Demolition responded similarly.

“Well, their internal affairs are their problem, right?”

<LOL, that’s true>

<Why should we care about someone else’s misery, LOL>

<As long as it’s not me!>

Now that viewers had a rough idea of how the war unfolded, their interest naturally shifted to the results they gained.

<So how many cities did you capture this time?>

“Don’t be surprised!”

drumroll

<You’re dragging it out, LOL>

<Oh, come on! LOL>

“We got thirteen!”

<?????>

<Thirteen?>

They’d figured it’d be a lot, but the actual number being thirteen was insane.

“Amazing, right? Amazing?”

“With this war, we at Total Demolition have become the guild that owns the most cities, bar none!”

“For now, the cities have each been redistributed to guild members. The rest are being managed directly by the guild.”

“But Yooseong was assigned two cities. Honestly, considering he pretty much led this war, that reward is only fair.”

<So now Yooseong owns four cities in total?>

<That number wipes out most guilds>

<And one of them is Moradin, LOL>

<You could literally call him a one-man army>

Viewers shook their heads in awe.

<I want to see the footage for myself>

<Will the stream be uploaded?>

“Don’t worry. Every single guild member recorded the entire war.”

“No way we’re dumb enough not to row when the tide’s in our favor.”

“If you really want to appreciate it, you should watch Yooseong’s video.”

“Honestly, this whole war revolved around him.”

And not long after, as promised, Total Demolition members uploaded videos of the war. Some edited them, while others uploaded the full, long footage as is.

Viewers picked what suited their tastes and watched the videos with excitement.

***

Yooseong, who had fought a great war in Arc. But no matter how large or fierce the war, since it was just a game, it didn’t touch Yooseong all that deeply.

Life had gotten a lot more stable now, but Yooseong’s reality was still an endless fight for survival.

Yooseong was looking over information gathered by robots controlled by the walkthrough.

The war with monsters and beasts and a hundred years had wiped out most traces of a brilliant civilization. But now, since Yooseong was deploying robots on a large scale and greatly expanding their search area, he was able to collect a decent amount of information.

Of course, most of it wasn’t very useful to Yooseong right now, but sometimes there were tidbits that piqued his interest.

‘Area requiring large-scale search, huh…’

The info Yooseong was looking at now was the same.

There was heavy damage, so he couldn’t see the details.

But he was intrigued because the spot this information was found seemed to be an important institution before civilization collapsed, and there were records of search operations being carried out even amid intense fighting.

‘Looks like it’s in Mongolia, maybe.’

Yooseong called to mind a world map he’d seen in the other world.

‘The issue is, that area was monster and beast territory back then.’

In the war with the monsters and beasts, humanity was always on the defensive. No matter what, against monsters immune to human weapons, how could they possibly mount an offensive?

So the strategy at the time was to delay the enemy offensive as long as possible while searching for something, anything that could hurt the monsters.

‘In the end, they never found it, though.’

But now, he’d found information showing that, back when they should have only been desperately enduring, someone actually advanced into monster and beast territory.

It wasn’t an attack or anything like that. Human forces could never have attacked. And everyone at the time must have known that.

‘Requested search area. So they really went in there to find something.’

So what could it be? There was no way he wasn’t curious.

‘Maybe it’s something that could help me survive.’

Of course, if it was too dangerous, he would’ve hesitated. But now Yooseong had a whole arsenal of robots.

‘And it’s close to the route I’m taking anyway.’

Since Yooseong was already planning to head to the American continent via the Bering Sea, his robots were already pushing north. He’d just have to send a few off to the side.

‘Let’s send them.’

Yooseong gave the walkthrough the command.

Some time passed.

Based on the info he received, the robots moved toward Mongolia. As they went, they set up relay stations and scouted the surrounding areas.

Eventually, the robots reached the area indicated in the records.

Yooseong sipped some fruit juice he’d brought from the other world and watched the feed.

‘Looks like there really is something there…’

He couldn’t see anything special right away on the screen. But it wasn’t without oddities.

‘There are way too many beasts.’

Sure, the overall number of beasts was trending upwards everywhere, but the closer the robots got to the designated spot, the more their numbers skyrocketed.

Even now, many beasts were prowling around the robots, so the machines were advancing very carefully.

While the beasts had no interest in robots, there was no need to provoke them needlessly.

Fortunately, thanks to their cautious approach, they avoided any battles with the beasts.

After some time, the robots fully entered the designated area.

‘…What the heck is that!’

Yooseong’s eyes widened as he saw something on the feed.