SSG 253

Episode 253

“Involved parties?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re saying we’ll be affected while those guys are fighting among themselves?”

The guild members all expressed doubt at once.

“Before Yuseong triggered the C.O.T.S. infighting, he consulted with me.”

“Well, anyone could guess the fallout would be big, so it makes sense. And it really turned out that way.”

“It was a bit more serious than what Mr. Cooking Day thought.”

“Hm?”

“What I’m about to tell you is something Yuseong deduced, and I also found it quite convincing.”

“Then that’s 100%. Don’t hesitate, just tell us.”

“This muscle freak is right. If the two of you agree, then it must be a solid deduction.”

That was a thought not only held by Barbarian and Incendiary, who spoke, but by the other guild members as well.

“Thank you. Then, I’ll explain. After Yuseong realized the Willy faction was up to something, he tried to infer why they were doing it. The most likely reason he saw was to seize control of C.O.T.S.”

“Looking at their current situation, that sounds exactly right.”

“Come to think of it, he succeeded, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. He’s pretty impressive.”

“As you all say, it appears Willy has seized C.O.T.S. for now. But the damage isn’t small either.”

“In the end, he couldn’t take all the cities, right?”

“I heard there are some remnants left.”

“I heard a lot of the cities were damaged during the rebellion too.”

“What really surprised me was that so many NPCs sided with Willy. That was one of the reasons he succeeded, right?”

“It seems the NPCs Willy brought in as refugees were the ones who backed him up.”

“I heard other guilds are pretty nervous because of that.”

“The more refugees they accepted, the more anxious they must be.”

But that was the same for JeMeotDaero. In fact, because of Yuseong and Lucky Guy, they had taken in more refugees than any other guild.

Of course, most of the refugees had gathered in Yuseong and Lucky Guy’s cities, but since they’d distributed some refugees to other guild members to help, every city had at least a certain number of refugees.

However, the guild members weren’t particularly concerned. It was a clear difference from other guilds, who were now suspicious of each other.

It was a testament to their deep trust.

“To minimize the damage, Willy seems to have plotted his scheme. He provoked various incidents to vilify Python, grew his own power within the guild, and in the end staged a takeover—something like that.”

“It sounds simple, but it’s not easy.”

“That’s right. But it’s true that things went pretty smoothly. From what I heard, thanks to Python acting like an idiot, his notoriety only continued to grow. If things had kept going, it would have likely succeeded.”

Then Aidyn looked at Yuseong.

“If it wasn’t for a certain monster who identified the same person just by the tiniest habits.”

The other guild members looked at Yuseong too.

“That was really amazing.”

“I thought he was crazy.”

“What kind of eyes do you need to pull that off?”

“With that skill, no wonder he could take down bonus bosses so easily.”

Even the guild members, most of whom had tremendous physical prowess, were amazed by Yuseong’s discernment.

“If that was the end of it, then we’d just be watching C.O.T.S. fight among themselves for fun.

There’d be no need to out Willy. But we didn’t think it would end here.”

“You’re saying those YaChaeBed bastards are planning something? Against us?”

“The old man is exactly right. After stabilizing the guild, Willy will surely declare war on us.”

The atmosphere dropped. But it wasn’t due to fear or despair—it was more annoyance and irritation.

“Those guys, again?”

“How many times do they need to get trampled before they learn?”

Recently, JeMeotDaero had always beaten C.O.T.S. in any competition or battle. After gaining a city, they even far surpassed C.O.T.S. in scale, so none of them were anxious about being targeted.

“But if Willy’s side succeeds, they could gain a lot. No matter if they’ve seized C.O.T.S., their position should be unstable. But if they beat us, they’ll secure their legitimacy. They’ll have finally defeated us JeMeotDaero, who they’ve always lost to. Plus, they can vent some personal humiliation.”

“Oh right, that guy got beaten by Yuseong.”

“Didn’t he use to be considered a rival?”

“If he’s still hanging on to that glory, that’s really pathetic.”

“I can see why they’d want to oppose us. But do they actually have the power left for it? Even when things were fine, they couldn’t match us, and with even less strength now after seizing the guild, surely they’re weaker.”

It was West Flowerbed who asked.

Since Python, Apollon, and their followers—the real forces of C.O.T.S.—were gone, their strength had to have decreased.

With even their full strength, C.O.T.S. could never beat JeMeotDaero, so now that they’d dropped in power even further, there was no way they could beat JeMeotDaero.

“Of course, if we just compare simple firepower, we have the overwhelming upper hand. But now, Mr. Yuseong has uncovered Willy’s hidden card.”

“A new city. And the power of the demons.”

Cooking Day said.

“Having a new city doesn’t seem so threatening. Considering how rare cities are, I doubt they have many. If you think about the player city being inside demon territory, it’s possible they found other cities with the help of the demons. But if they had that many cities, there’d be no need to take over C.O.T.S. No matter how little Utopia cares about perfect balance, they wouldn’t put in an event that thoughtless.”

“No more than one or two, then.”

“Yuseong and I think it’s just one.”

“Then their real hope must be the demon faction.”

“Given the Willy faction worked together with the black-armored last time during that big demon raid, the same thing could happen again.”

“Yeah. If we have to consider demon attacks, that really complicates things.”

“But thanks to the seed that Mr. Yuseong threw into C.O.T.S., their forces have been substantially weakened. Still, I don’t think they’ll give up on attacking us. If anything, they’ll try even harder.”

“Since Willy’s forcibly taken over, his position as guild leader must be shaky. So he needs to create an external enemy to forcibly unify the group.”

“And since we’re the most annoying possible opponent, it’ll be even more effective.”

“It’s a classic strategy. There’s a reason it keeps getting used.”

“If he wins, Willy will solidify his control over C.O.T.S. And if he beats us, he can take our city and compensate for his lost strength. In fact, he could grow C.O.T.S. even more, since we’re the biggest guild in Ark.”

Aidyn’s argument was persuasive.

“Of course, he’ll use the demons, right?”

“Without a doubt. Their forces have been reduced by the infighting, so they have no choice. It’ll happen soon. If Willy’s plan worked perfectly, they could focus solely on us, but now, there’s the risk of an alliance of other angry guilds.”

“Lots of guilds must be pissed. There are guilds that suffered major losses or even lost their cities to the black-armored.”

“In other words, they need to accomplish something huge to justify claiming C.O.T.S. and also grow enough to weather counterattacks or retaliation from other guilds. After all, it’s not like they can control the demons as they wish.”

“So, attacking us is their best option.”

“It’s certain they’ll attack.”

“And with the demons, too.”

But neither Cooking Day nor the other guild members looked particularly worried. In fact, Aidyn, who spoke so seriously, was the one caught off guard.

“Aren’t you all worried?”

“How could we not? We don’t just have to deal with C.O.T.S., but also the unknown strength of the demon faction. But the fact that you called this meeting means you must already have a plan, right?”

Cooking Day smiled brightly and looked at Yuseong and Aidyn.

“Let’s hear it.”

“…….”

“…….”

“Spit it out already.”

“Stop stalling.”

“…….”

“…….”

Yuseong and Aidyn just blinked wordlessly at each other.

---

Willy, who had pulled off a rebellion and succeeded in seizing most of C.O.T.S.’s cities. But as Yuseong and Aidyn predicted—and as Yuseong already knew outright from Messiah—Willy’s situation was not very good.

Even so, Willy was somehow holding C.O.T.S.’s full power under his control.

“Python and Apollon. And their lackeys?”

“They’re quiet.”

Willy, having moved a step faster than even Python anticipated, had managed to deal with most of his enemies.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Unlike reality, in the game, people can keep respawning. In other words, they remained an ongoing threat.

But Willy turned that against them.

Most of the Python faction had used the city that Willy found first as their base. Since Willy had grown it using information bought in Utopia, it was the largest city.

And since most of the refugees Willy had found there sided with him, that city was also the first to switch sides.

Once Willy seized the city, he immediately stationed troops at the respawn points. Every time someone from the Python faction respawned, they were killed again.

The Python faction kept respawning out of anger, but after dying a few more times, things had quieted down.

“But that bastard Python really is something.”

“That’s why he was deputy guild leader of C.O.T.S. all this time.”

Where the others only gave up after dying several times, Python didn’t respawn again—not even once—after his first surprise death.

They’d hoped to kill him several more times and at least drop his level by one, so it was disappointing.

“On the other hand, Apollon is just…”

“I told you, that guy is definitely inferior to Python.”

Just as Willy’s men focused on toppling Python faction’s main city, Mad Hammer—now aligned with Willy—took down the Apollon faction’s main city with Apollon’s former associates. They too camped the respawn points and killed the enemies repeatedly.

Unlike Python, Apollon just kept respawning blindly out of rage, getting killed each time by Mad Hammer and his group.

“Well, that’s a relief. At least we crushed Apollon’s side.”

“But it’s not over yet.”

Willy, who had been quietly listening, spoke.

“Right. It’s not over yet. Until the very last piece is resolved, it’s not really done. So just keep following the plan.”

There was a wild look in his eyes.