Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
We continued chasing the fleeing soldiers. We kept our guard up, as there was a chance the enemy was leading us into a trap, but from the way the soldiers were running away like panicked chickens, it seemed we didn’t need to worry. The Crootian soldiers had come truly believing they were going to win this battle, which was supposed to decide the victor of this war on the Judge’s Continent. Confident that the enemy hadn’t come with any escape plans or the like, I and my officers ordered our soldiers to pursue and kill as many enemy soldiers as possible. We didn’t see any of the deities that had come with Claudia anymore, either.
A message we received mid-chase gave us the energy to keep going.
[We have successfully repelled the traitors’ attack. It was difficult at first thanks to the red-eyed stranger, but we persevered and when he suddenly left the battle, we were able to make quick work of them.]==
The battle against Claudia was obviously the Empire’s first priority and as a result, we had no choice but to leave our base of operations with a smaller force to repel the Windsor Guard and the Nayuta Guild. Even with Lagus Aman leading the smaller army, it was very risky and yet, he did it. He had defeated the traitor guilds with little to no casualties. That only served to raise the morale of our soldiers even more. Their families and friends were now safe, and the thought of it had given us the energy to chase the enemy for well over a day now.
It was getting hard to keep up the chase now, though. With Critical Weakness and Ripped Advance both deactivated, my Fatigue was starting to rise. But still, we didn’t stop. It was too good a chance to pass up.
——
Only three days after Claudia was killed did we finally come to a stop. The enemy soldiers had managed to escape deep into the enemy’s territory, and only about eighty thousand of us had managed to come this far. The rest of the soldiers had to stop giving chase when their Fatigue was too high for them to continue.
As I watched the enemy soldiers disappear off into the horizon and out of my view, I turned back to my soldiers. I saw the tired backs of Madun Yatekin, Song Haechang, and Arthur Lucas, and they all seemed chipper than the rest of the soldiers.
“Let’s set camp here. Don’t worry about keeping guard. I’ll keep watch until our comrades arrive!” I shouted to the soldiers.
The soldiers sat down from where they stood. “Alright!”
“We did it! We won!”
“Lee Jiwon! Lee Jiwon!”
“Lee Jiwon! Lee Jiwon!”
Some still had some energy to cheer my name while others fell fast asleep from exhaustion.
“Shouldn’t you get some rest too, commander?” Song Haechang asked. He kept up the formalities, as our advance into enemy territory wasn’t over yet.
“I’m fine. You go and rest with the others before the reinforcements get here.”
“Understood.”
During our chase, I had kept in constant contact with the soldiers behind us, discussing where we should stop giving chase. We decided that we should keep advancing instead.
Many wanted to keep going because Croot’s strongest player was out of the game, and it would be waste to just stop after only three days. The enemy was too busy trying to recover from their losses. As such, we decided to destroy the enemy’s remaining six frontline Sections, since they weren’t going to be able to do anything about it.
——
The next day…
The soldiers who were left behind finally caught up with us, but we didn’t move out yet. We had the luxury to rest a few more days. Once they were all here, I met with my officers to get a handle on our current situation.
“From what we can tell, about five hundred thousand enemy soldiers have managed to escape. That means we killed about 1.8 million enemy soldiers.”
“Whoa! 1.8 million?”
“We killed most of them during the three-day chase. Many of them didn’t have any transportation skills or abilities, and were not fast enough to get away from us. This was all possible thanks to the commander killing Claudia.”
“I concur. And especially with Claudia’s Severed Time ability…” the officer trailed off and the atmosphere around the meeting chilled. I saw a few shiver.
“The intel that said that Claudia had the ability to wipe out millions was true, without a doubt. If it weren’t for Commander Lee, she would have wiped us out, too.”
“Hmm… and what about our casualties?”
“We have lost about two hundred thousand soldiers.”
“Two hundred…” The enemy had lost 1.8 million soldiers. If we had only lost two hundred thousand, it was clearly our win, but I couldn’t help but feel regretful. Those two hundred thousand soldiers were not only the Empire’s elites, but also Earth’s elites. Knowing this, the officers fell back into silence.
“Very well. We’ll honor their service and sacrifice when we return to base. We’re not done yet,” I said as I turned back to Alpha.
“Yes, sir. Once the enemy soldiers managed to escape us, we started constantly checking the status of Croot’s frontline Sections. This video is from a few hours ago.” Alpha took out a Memory Gem, which played back a video of the enemy’s frontline Sections, except for Sections 79, 81, and 82. Very quickly, we noticed a similarity between all of them.
“They’re empty.” There was not a single Crootian in the Sections.
“Correct. Claudia’s influence must have been greater than we have thought. This Memory Gem doesn’t show it, but when news of Claudia’s death reached the Crootians, it’s safe to say they panicked. As a result, the Crootians that were in the frontline Sections have all left, leaving them abandoned.”
We did expect them to react like that. That was why we waited until all of the soldiers who were left behind caught up with us, so that they could all get the twenty million golden rings for destroying each enemy Section.
“Very well. We’ll move out at first light tomorrow and destroy the enemy’s frontline Sections, starting with Section 76.”
“Yes sir!”
“Make the necessary arrangements.”
——
That ended the meeting and we all left to rest for the coming journey. There were some differing opinions during the meeting. Some wanted to evenly split the 1.8 million soldiers and invade the six enemy Sections all at once, instead of going altogether. But if we did that, the soldiers would only get twenty million golden rings once.
Sure, it took a lot more time and would leave us unable to run away from the enemy if they somehow recovered and counter-attacked, but from what the Gnosis Guild had gathered, the enemy was still in a panic. There was a good chance they wouldn’t even think about attacking for the time being.
And so, we made the decision to take one Section at a time, even if it did take more time. We even set up a Teleporter Zone here to bring in Lagus and his soldiers so that they could also take advantage of the golden rings. They were, after all, the ones who had protected our friends and family from the traitors; it was only fair that they should be rewarded as well!
——
The next morning, I led my soldiers out into the enemy’s territory once again, gradually increasing our numbers with the occasional Teleporter Zone on the way.
We were able to destroy Sections 76, 77, 78, 80, 83, and 84 completely uncontested. Including the three Sections I had destroyed some time ago, the enemy had now lost a total of nine Sections. Since the Sections weren’t manned, we didn’t get any contribution points, but it honestly wasn’t a big deal at this point.
==[World 1512 will receive a penalty for losing Section 84 to the enemy.
The Stores of World 1512’s remaining Sections will experience a 5% increase in prices.]==
==[You have obtained 1 contribution point. You will receive 20,000,000 golden rings for participating in the full invasion of an enemy’s Section.]==
==[You have obtained 10 golden rings for 1 contribution point.]==
With nine destroyed Sections, the enemy was going to experience a total of a 45% price hike in Stores. That was a huge penalty for the enemy, as it made it much harder for each Crootian to grow any stronger. Conversely, our soldiers had gained more golden rings to invest into themselves… and unfortunately for Croot, we weren’t done yet. We still had the ability to watch their movements.
“The Crootians are still in a panic. I believe we can take a few more Sections,” Alpha advised me. Knowing I could always trust in the Gnosis Guild’s intel, I quickly led my army deeper into enemy territory. There was no way we could let this chance go.
——
Two months later…
I was leading an army of more than 2.5 million Empire soldiers back to Section 3. During the last two months, we had destroyed a total of twelve enemy Sections completely uncontested. That and all the golden rings the soldiers earned were amazing results.
“Should we hold a feast when we get back?”
“Of course we should! Let’s hold a magnificent one.”
“I have to agree with that,” a few officers said to me, smiling broadly.
“You’re right. Let’s have a party. We should since they’re all waiting for us,” I agreed with a smile of my own.
During our invasion of the enemy’s territory, I had received occasional reports from the Empire’s base of operations. Song Daechul was tasked with the responsibility of looking after it while the Empire’s main force was out, and he did his job and more.
He had completely shut down the Windsor Guard and the Nayuta Guild with the help of Lagus, and completely destroyed the two guilds for their treachery. Apparently, the Windsor Guard had surrendered to him, but when the Nayuta Guild refused, Song Daechul had Okamoto killed, rapidly ending that nonsense.
Some Earth guilds had voiced their concerns, wondering if the punishment was too severe, but I and Song Daechul made it clear: Terrans shared the same fate on the Judge’s Continent. Putting the lives of our comrades at risk was far more dangerous than enemy soldiers. It answered and silenced any more complaints.
Finally, we saw the walls of Section 3, which were lined with so many people. When they saw us, they all cheered.
“Long live the Empire!”
“Lee Jiwon! Lee Jiwon!”
Their cheers were loud enough to shake the ground beneath us. We entered Section 3, heads held high from all the cheering, and joined the party that was already taking place. More than three million people were invited, making this weeklong feast the most expensive we’d thrown so far, but we didn’t worry. It was mostly funded by the Windsor Guard and the Nayuta Guild, anyway.
——
One month later, at Section 35…
We had returned the Empire to its original positions. We went back to defending Sections 3, 6, and 7 like before, and returned our base of operations back to Section 35. I also returned my clan back to Section 35, where I took some well-deserved time off.
But as I was lounging around at my home, I noticed the presence of some people coming this way. I noticed right away that they were Song Daechul and some other guild masters.
“You have some visitors, young master.”
“Let them in.”
“Yes sir.”
Soon, Song Daechul and the other guild masters entered my drawing room.
“I apologize for bothering you when you should be resting, Jiwon.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve rested enough already. What brings you all here?”
All of the Empire was taking it easy these days. While our casualties weren’t as great as Croot’s, many had lost family members and friends during the battle, so they needed time to mourn. With Croot losing its strongest players, we at least had the luxury to let our guard down for a little longer.
“We would like you to have this,” Song Daechul said, as he handed me a large bunch of golden rings. “We couldn’t take away the traitors’ equipped items since they were bound, but we did seize all other items we could. These are the leftover golden rings after throwing the feast and compensating the family members of the fallen.”
“Why are you…?”
Song Daechul chuckled. “You’re the hero who won us this battle, are you not? No, hero doesn’t truly do you justice. I saw the video. If it weren’t for you, we would have lost not only the battle, but the war. So take them, please. You most certainly deserved it. We won’t take no for an answer.”
“Take it, Mr. Lee. We owe our lives to you,” Shin chimed in.
With all of the guild masters around me imploring me, I took the golden rings, accepting the bundle from Song Daechul’s hands.
It was a total of 14.5 billion golden rings. It was quite a lot, considering that it was supposed to be the leftovers.
“Thank you.”
“Hahaha. You don’t need to thank us. We only wish we could give you more after what you’ve done for us!”
——
After a few more words with the guild masters, they left me alone in my drawing room. I returned to my room and sat down on my sofa, summoning the Dungeon Mole and the Achilles Tendon like always. I set down the Tendon on the table beside me and gave the Mole a piece of candy while petting its soft fur. I even decided to pet the Tendon today for a change. These two had truly helped me out so much, especially Death’s Tendon.
“I’ll be relying on you both in the future. And you; hang in there a little longer, would you? I’m getting fewer Stat points each time,” I said to the Tendon, but it just groaned in response.
“But now that I think about it, I haven’t Consumed the Mole ever since I came to the Judge’s Continent.” There was no reason to, really. There was nothing to gain from hunting in dungeons, nor did I get any points towards Dungeon Seeker. But I remembered that the Dungeon Mole gave me the ability to teleport to dungeons I’d been to. I stared at the Dungeon Mole that was fervently eating its candy.
“Consume!”
