The players were following after Dave, this time respectfully accepting his commands and orders. He didn't ask to be listened to or asked to become their commander. But the discipline the undead army showed to Dave had affected the players.
They walked behind Dave's undead army in an organized manner and aided him in liberating all the possible areas of the desert. As for when the Blue and Green Qin units showed up. All had understood that they weren't capable of pushing them back and were forced to change direction.
Dave spent an entire in-game day in liberating the southern desert. But he never was able to push back the blue and green units. They were too powerful. Yet thankfully, these units only acted as a barrier to prevent Dave from retaking more of the Southern soil. These units didn't advance to the other oasis, or all of Dave's hard work would have been for naught.
Another SOS message arrived. The north was suffering from massive attacks on all fronts, which made Dave decide on going to aid the north. He teleported and appeared in the northern capital.
This time, tens of thousands of players joined in on Dave' raid of liberation. Dave changed his mount to Grumpy. He was better suited for the terrain in the north than the dunlord Stinger.
"What now, Davey?" Lone asked
"The same. We'll free the north or as much of it as we can. This is what your uncle said."
"Yeah, but aren't you doing too much work? I mean you already helped clear the South." Lone questioned.
"Yeah, but who says no to free EXP, heck I'm already level 422 from just hunting the Qin warriors," Dave said in a grin.
"Grinding maniac," Lone jested.
"Alright, everyone ride on!" Dave shouted and led his army deeper into the icy northern soil.
The attack on the Qin soldiers was much easier in the north. The undead were unaffected by the cold as for the players and the Qin warriors, they were struggling to contend with the player base in besieging them.
The players had held on for long, and most of the players that were sent to Limbo had already returned and rejoined the liberation of the lands.
Currently, the Qin army had taken eighteen cites from the north and ten oases from the south. That is counting all the territory that Dave had liberated. The Qin army was massive in numbers. And Dave's tactics only helped to lessen the impact the Qin army was causing.
"Skelly!" A player shouted.
Dave turned to see a Beast-tamer running alongside Dave.
"There are sightings of the Blue and Green units of the Qin army a few kilometers away from here we should change direction."
Dave nodded and pointed to the side. With this move, all of the army curved away like a snake changing direction. They headed to another city in the north.
This continued for the whole day. Dave relieved three cities from siege and captured three more from the Qin army. But at the end of the day, Dave was but a human. Unlike his undead avatar, his real self was assaulted by fatigue and exhaustion. He was logged in for more than four days-in games. Hunger and sleep assaulted him, and he was in dire need of rest.
After freeing a fourth city, Dave had to stop. Even his party members looked haggered and exhausted.
Dave turned and spoke a few words.
"I'll have to stop here everyone. I'm tired."
"What about the rest of the cites! We can still take a few more!" A player shouted.
Another player next to him smacked him in the head and said, "The hell are you saying. The dude said he was tired, man. he's been helping everyone for days now, and you just logged in."
"Well, I just thought we could get more EXP man."
"If you want the exp, no one's stopping you from attacking the Qin warriors on your own," another player said.
They all knew that without Dave's undead army to hold the front, they would be no match for the Qin warriors. So the player that first started the discussion had to quiet down.
"I may be an undead in-game. But I still breathe and feel exhaustion outside it," Dave said.
"I'll try to log back in after I have enough rest. Until then, good luck with defending your lands."
Just as Dave finished his words, Ralph put a call he was receiving on speaker. It was from Mr. Valentine.
"Kis'Shtiengbrah," Valentine said, he at least knew how to pronounce the name properly.
"Yeah, what up?" Dave asked.
"I just wanted to thank you for all of your assistance, your help gave us back a lot of lost territory, even if it isn't much compared to the overall loss to the Qin army it's better than nothing. On behalf of all the Devastator guild and all its branches, I thank you for your assistance.
Dave shrugged, he had no need for thanks. His objective from the start was to grind EXP and the loot the guards dropped, which by the way were all packed into his and his undead's inventories.
"You should probably go and rest, you were probably the player that contributed the most in this raid," Valentine said.
"Yeah. I was gonna do that, good luck with the rest," Dave said.
Dave turned to his undead and said, "Legionnaires. You have worked hard. Thank you."
The undead became thrilled at Dave's praise, and all shouted his name.
Dave gestured for Singund to come closer.
"Take everyone back to Urburg. Protect my city. And if you still have matters to tend to with your orc-kin go and finish them. I'll be back in a day." Dave said.
The orc nodded to Dave and teleported out of the city. This caused the rest of the undead to follow suit and the whole area was devoid of undead.
Dave turned to his friends," You guys should log out too."
"Yeah was thinking about it," everyone seemed to agree to Dave's suggestion. The exhaustion they accumulated over these days was crippling.
Dave pressed the log-out button and left the game.
The moment he was out of the capsule, he felt the whole room spinning. He was famished and parched. He went to the mini-fridge and grabbed some snacks and a water bottle. Drinking his fill, Dave ordered room service as he occupied his growling stomach with very expensive nuts.
Sometime later, a woman entered with a food tray to Dave's room and left. He ate his fill and took a shower, then went straight to bed. The moment he closed his eyes, Dave was deep asleep.
Morning came too fast for Dave's liking, his bed was still warm, but an annoying ringtone forcefully woke him up.
He answered the phone while still feeling half asleep, "Hello, who's this?" Dave asked. He didn't check the caller's name on his phone.
"David. This is Samuel, are you still asleep?"
Dave instantly sat up, "I'm up!" he said.
"Good. Zoe's coming to your hotel room. We'll be doing a visit to Sigma-Electronics. Oh, by the way, did you think up a good name for the company?"
"Huh? I can only rename the company when I have more than 51% of the shares, so far we aren't there yet," Dave said.
"Well, that might change after the stuff I uncovered yesterday," Samuel Silvana said.
Even while Dave was only on the phone, he could clearly picture the Devil Barrister smiling like a demon about to have a poor human sell his soul.
