SSG 249

A flash of teleportation light illuminated the plaza in front of the gates of Protsenhau. As soon as the teleportation ended, Yuseong immediately jumped up onto the city wall.

Several NPC soldiers were peering outside from atop the wall.

Far off in the distance, dark shapes could be seen.

‘They’re here.’

The army of demons and monsters.

With several cities already raided, it was no surprise.

However, their numbers were extraordinary. It seemed like they could overrun Protsenhau in an instant.

Still, Yuseong remained calm.

‘Just as expected.’

As a member of Jemutdaero, the guild owning the most cities in Ark, it was natural that the invading force was accordingly larger.

Yuseong sent out messages to the other guild members.

A short while later, streams of teleportation light poured into Protsenhau.

“I’m here!”

“Hello, Yuseong!”

The first to arrive were Western Gardener and Beauty Art. After a brief greeting, they looked out at the approaching enemies.

“I expected a lot, but this is even more than I thought.”

“They’re swarming.”

Apparently, they too were a bit overwhelmed by the size of the enemy force.

But only for a moment.

“Still, just as expected, if we gather all of our guild’s forces, we can fend them off.”

“No, we probably don’t even need to gather everyone.”

Aiden spoke, climbing up onto the wall.

“The skill of our guild members is among the best in Ark. We can handle those numbers even without mustering all the NPCs. In fact, with players leading the charge, there have been plenty of cases where enemies got repelled much more easily.”

“The problem is the black armors.”

Cooking Day, who came next, spoke.

Behind him, other guild members began arriving atop the wall in turn.

“I’m not worried. No matter how strong the black armors are, they can’t handle our guild members.”

“Didn’t the guild leader say they were likely players?”

“Yes. So there’s even less reason to worry. Our guild members are the strongest players around.”

“Except me and the guild leader.”

“As I keep saying, Lucky Guy, you’re different from me. Anyway, let’s assemble our troops. It won’t be hard. Just, as we discussed before, troop movements have to be discreet.”

There had already been cases where, during or after a demon raid, a city was captured by another guild. It was best to hide the fact that they were under attack.

In particular, Jemutdaero was more vulnerable because they had taken about half their cities from other guilds, so their coordinates were exposed.

Fortunately, they had already practiced troop movements multiple times, so it wasn’t difficult.

Soon, Protsenhau’s city walls began to fill with soldiers.

Like the demons and monsters in other sieges, this time the invaders allowed the city time to prepare before launching their assault.

-Uoooooh!

One of the monsters let out a huge roar. As if on cue, the rest all started bellowing fiercely and began to charge toward Protsenhau.

“They’re coming!”

“Get ready!”

Jemutdaero’s side prepared for the incoming enemies.

The demons and monsters launched a fierce assault, desperately trying to scale the walls. Yet, just as Aiden had assured, Jemutdaero was able to hold them off relatively easily.

“Black armors! They’re here!”

Western Gardener shouted. True enough, several black armors appeared, charging toward the city. There was more than one.

It was known that the number and strength of black armors increased in proportion to a guild’s number of cities. Since Jemutdaero had the most cities, both the number and power of black armors were highest.

However, Jemutdaero was already aware of this and had prepared countermeasures.

“Please, everyone!”

Aiden shouted.

The countermeasure was simple: everyone except the leader, who had to give orders, would take on the black armors.

But sometimes, simple is best. Considering the high ability of Jemutdaero’s guild members, this was a fitting tactic.

Yuseong pointed at one of the charging black armors.

“I’ll take that one.”

“Which one? The one with the giant hammer?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’ll take the sword guy next to him.”

“I’ll go for the one all the way to the left.”

They each picked a black armor to confront.

Yuseong aimed his rifle outside the wall, targeting the giant hammer-wielder he’d chosen.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His rifle spat fire, but his shots didn’t hit well. The enemy was using nearby monsters as a shield, hiding behind the big ones and denying Yuseong a clear angle.

Other enemies’ attacks also interfered with Yuseong, especially the flying demons were troublesome.

But Yuseong, known for his monstrous accuracy, still managed to land some hits whenever the enemy’s body was exposed.

Even so, the black armor pressed on, using demons and monsters as meat shields until he reached the city gate.

Bang! Bang!

He started hammering on the gate. Until now, monsters had also attacked the gate, but his blows were of another magnitude. Sensing the gate would soon give way, Yuseong himself hurried down to the gate.

Bang! Bang!

Now at the gate, Yuseong continued spraying bullets into the sky, holding back the demons.

Crash!

The gate burst open. Yuseong slung his rifle and drew his pistol.

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

He unloaded a hail of bullets at the black armor charging through the broken gate. Unable to use monsters as shields, the black armor took the full force of the shots.

But he wasn’t backing down, swinging his hammer at Yuseong.

Whoosh!

A devastating attack, the same that destroyed the gate. Yuseong didn’t budge, swinging his bayonet.

Clang!

Bayonet collided with hammer. In that split second, Yuseong switched guns and shot the black armor in the stomach.

The black armor flinched, but with formidable stamina and defense, kept swinging at Yuseong.

Although the gate was breached, the two fought so fiercely in the narrow passage that no monsters could get through. Any that tried were cut down by Yuseong’s bullets.

But when more black armors arrived, Yuseong had to fall back.

Yet that didn’t mean Jemutdaero was in trouble.

As the black armors entered the city, other guild members stepped up to intercept, fighting those they’d picked out and breaking the enemy’s momentum. Monsters that did manage to enter were suppressed by the NPC soldiers.

The fight continued for some time.

Thud!

Yuseong’s shot embedded in the hammer-wielding black armor’s face. No matter how tough, he finally hit his limit.

He fell.

Without missing a beat, Yuseong looked for his next target.

There was another black armor.

Because Jemutdaero, though large in territory, had relatively few members, there were more black armors than guild members.

However, Jemutdaero’s elite NPC forces kept the rest of the black armors busy, and the members’ sharp eyes helped them focus on the strongest enemies.

Yuseong charged the closest black armor. Other members, after handling their own, also began helping subdue remaining black armors.

Bang!

Yuseong’s gun blazed. A battered monster fell.

That was the last one. No enemies remained standing.

<<Uwooooooo!>>

NPCs threw their hands in the air and cheered. The guild members gathered at the gate, sharing high-fives and congratulating each other on their victory.

“Haha, that really was nothing!”

“Yeah, it’s hard to believe some cities fell to this.”

Barbarian and Incendiary, usually at odds, agreed for once.

All the guild members felt the same. They didn’t cheer like the NPCs, simply because the fight had been too easy.

“For now, let’s return troops to their positions. If another guild notices and attacks, it’ll be trouble.”

At Aiden’s order, the members began withdrawing their forces.

“If anyone sustained heavy losses, please let me know! The guild will compensate you!”

Aiden called out to the members as well, gathering up his own forces. Since he had to manage both his own city’s troops and those from other guild-owned cities, he had more work than the others.

But thanks to his renowned management skills, it was no trouble.

“Please handle the cleanup, Yuseong.”

“Don’t worry.”

Owners of cities where battles took place had to clean up the battlefield.

Of course, being a game, there was no need to dispose of corpses, care for the injured, or take prisoners.

His job was simply to collect the items dropped by dead demons and monsters.

Those spoils would later be shared fairly among the guild members.

Given the sheer number, it would be a valuable haul, but no one doubted Yuseong.

It was a testament to the deep mutual trust among Jemutdaero guild members.

Of course, another reason was that revenue from the cities was so high that nobody cared about these minor gains.

After ordering his NPCs to collect the loot and sending troops borrowed from other cities back, Yuseong started a conversation with Messiah.

‘The ones today were C.O.T.S, right?’

[Correct.]

He already knew from the intel, but even without it, he would have figured it out.

‘The guy I fought—that was definitely Mad Hammer.’

[Yes. It seems you recognized him by his weapon.]

“That, and his fighting style was the same as when I fought him before.”

Even in Ark, with its many skills, every player had their own combat style. Yuseong’s eye for these differences let him tell them apart.

[Impressive.]

‘I can use this to put more pressure on Willy. No solid evidence, but since we’re not going to attack them outright, it doesn’t matter.’

[It’s certain that player Willy will find it troublesome.]

‘I don’t feel sorry for him. His final goal is me, after all.’

Willy saw Yuseong as the wall he had to overcome, so Yuseong was inevitably his ultimate goal. Through Messiah’s advice, Yuseong knew this very well.

[But even if that weren’t the case, wouldn’t you still target Willy?]

‘Can’t deny it.’

As he’d considered before, the best opponent for getting attention was C.O.T.S and Willy.

‘But he’s aiming for me. So there’s no need to think twice.’

He had no qualms about trampling him underfoot.