Chapter 93

CHAPTER 93

He wasn't unaware of it, but there was no way they had verified it properly and targeted him because of it, right?

Seo Jun's eyes sparkled as he watched the rapidly unfolding situation with great interest and asked:

[Heavenly Demon14: What happens if Gansu gets occupied?]

Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei.

If Hebei was occupied, it would be over, and the place they attacked today was Shaanxi.

If things continue like this...

When Day 14 arrived, Shaanxi would become Demonic Cult territory. However, if the Orthodox Faction captured Gansu, Shaanxi would no longer be connected to the Demonic Cult's lands and would become isolated.

It would become an inland island surrounded by land.

The problem with that was—

[Third Elder: Starting tomorrow, other Demonic Cult players won't be able to support Shaanxi. Only those who attempted to attack Shaanxi at least once the previous day can play from the Shaanxi side.]

The number of people who could defend the isolated Shaanxi would be limited to those who had attacked it at least once the day before.

Since the connection had been severed, the conditions changed accordingly.

That didn't mean the users who had attacked Shaanxi would be trapped there, but it was obvious that defending it would become extremely difficult.

[Third Elder: Shanxi is directly connected to Hebei, so the Orthodox Faction will absolutely try to hold it no matter how many rankers they have to commit. That's why we planned to go all-out tomorrow, but if the connection gets cut here, it'll become difficult both to defend Shaanxi and to attack Shanxi.]

[Third Elder: If we try too hard to keep the connection from being cut, the Orthodox and Unorthodox Factions will realize what we're aiming for.]

[Third Elder: Still, if we can just defend Gansu today, the situation will be fine. The problem is...]

[Third Elder: It's going to be tough. I regret the small force we sent to poke the Unorthodox Faction earlier. If I'd known this would happen, I would've just saved them.]

If they had been trying to defend Gansu from the beginning, their forces would have been perfectly balanced.

But the Orthodox Faction had exploited that point brilliantly.

At the moment, the Orthodox Faction held the advantage in military strength.

The reason was simple: Seo Jun had already launched his attack.

The Demonic Cult had already sent out fifteen members of its force, including Dang So, while the Orthodox Faction had first tried to stop them with three people. When that failed, those three had conserved all three of their attempts.

Having high Fame Points is a poison at times like this.

As a result, the Demonic Cult had overinvested in Shaanxi and now found it difficult to defend Gansu.

If the Orthodox Faction were attacking Gansu right now instead of Shaanxi—

[Third Elder: I think we need to change our strategy.]

Change their strategy?

Seo Jun shifted his gaze from the private chat to the group chat.

• We need to make a decision quickly.
• Defending Gansu looks impossible. If we go there, they seem ready to call in even more people.
• Even if we have fewer people, we just need to win more battles!
• That'd only work if we had sixty Heavenly Demon-nims.
• Should we switch to targeting the Unorthodox Faction first? What's the chance of successfully attacking one of their territories connected to Shaanxi?
• How about forming a suicide squad?
• That probably won't work.

A suicide squad.

Are they saying we should have all the remaining rankers attack Shaanxi once and then push all the way to the end?

Listening to the conversation that followed, it seemed that was exactly what they meant.

• Here's why it's impossible. Regular users have to provide some support too. If we get surrounded, that won't happen.
• And during an all-out war, it's not just the regular users. Even the rankers are running short. There are people who already used all four attempts today.
• There's no point in barricading ourselves and stalling for time either. The overall battlefield schedule is too tight.

In the end, if they couldn't capture the enemy headquarters, everything would be for nothing.

But changing their strategy wasn't easy either.

Unlike the other factions, which had gradually seized important regions to secure advantageous positions, the Demonic Cult had invested everything into this single strategy.

They had already given up the good regions and taken the poor ones, meaning they would be starting at a disadvantage.

Switching targets to the Unorthodox Faction seemed to be the most realistic option.

If today's attack succeeded, and they could finish things within a few days, there would be no reason to stubbornly pursue the Orthodox Faction.

Ultimately, the reason they had hidden their intention of targeting a headquarters was to prevent the remaining faction from preparing while they focused on one enemy.

Things change this quickly, huh.

Now they had to make a decision.

As quickly as possible.

I think it was the right choice to just watch today.

Thinking that, Seo Jun sent a message to the Third Elder.

[Heavenly Demon14: Let's leak our objective to the Unorthodox Faction and use it against them.]

[Third Elder: Huh?]

A short while later, another message arrived.

[Third Elder: I told Ma Noeja too, and he says we should give it a try. Let's do it!]

At first, the Third Elder had reacted as if he had no idea what Seo Jun was talking about. But after hearing the detailed explanation, his response became quite positive.

[Third Elder: Hm. It actually sounds possible.]

[Third Elder: Just a moment.]

Ma Noeja wasn't a manager. He supposedly had the character concept of being a descendant of the Zhuge Clan who had been expelled from the family and joined the Demonic Cult.

That wasn't important, though.

Ma Noeja was one of the people who worked with the Third Elder to establish their overall strategy.

So—

[Heavenly Demon14: Then contact the Unorthodox Faction right away.]

His opinion had been accepted.

There was also that region.

The Orthodox territory Seo Jun had captured the day before.

And the place where the Orthodox Faction's rankers had poured in today.

At present, a large number of rankers were stationed in Gansu.

About forty from the Orthodox Faction?

They had initially committed around ten people, but once the Demonic Cult began defending, the Orthodox Faction sent more.

And whenever the Demonic Cult reinforced their numbers, the Orthodox Faction responded by deploying all their remaining personnel.

Countless red markers appeared and disappeared across numerous regions.

But among them, some remained without disappearing.

The Demonic Cult is short by about ten people.

By now, it was almost certain that Gansu would be lost tomorrow.

And thus, Day 13 came to an end.

The next day.

While preparing for his stream, Seo Jun opened the community forums.

It had become a fairly natural routine by now.

Maybe it was because he worked in a profession that lived off attention, but it was useful to keep track of these things.

And honestly, it was fun too.

[Summary of Battlefield Day 13]

[Guys, what happens if your retreat route gets cut off?]

[The Orthodox Faction's Counterattack!]

[Since they can't stop the Heavenly Demon lololol, the Orthodox Faction cut off his supply line lololol]

[Demonic Cult members, don't worry. Heavenly Demon-nim will take care of everything today. We just have to follow him.]

[But the Demonic Cult finally revealed its true colors.]

[The Orthodox Faction probably breathed a sigh of relief.]

[The fact that Heavenly Demon counts as fourteen people ended up being a hidden disadvantage.]

[Ah, if the stream had gone on longer yesterday, we could've seen the streamer panicking lol]

There were still plenty of posts about him.

Even though he hadn't streamed much yesterday and a whole day had already passed.

Suddenly, the Ark Master's words came back to him.

The players here are obsessed with experts.

Well, what gamer disliked highly skilled players?

Still, the atmosphere in For the Sake of Chivalry was a bit unique.

Thinking that, Seo Jun clicked on a post that caught his interest.

[But the Demonic Cult finally revealed its true colors]

The way those Demonic Cult guys desperately defended Gansu to keep the connection from being cut off.

That basically means they were aiming for a headquarters, doesn't it?

Heavenly Demon ← This bastard pretended not to coordinate with the Demonic Cult, but behind the scenes he was secretly following their orders.

That was a fair point.

The Demonic Cult's attempt to defend Gansu with all their remaining forces made it easy to infer that they were targeting a headquarters.

And the person who had opened that path was Seo Jun.

Since he had always acted as though he didn't cooperate much with others, calling him scheming wasn't entirely wrong—though the wording was unpleasant.

However—

Seo Jun smiled as he read the comments.

Are these all Demonic Cult members?

• Ahem. It's more like the Demonic Cult is following Heavenly Demon-nim's orders. And he's not scheming—he's smart. Please correct yourself.
• Show some respect to Heavenly Demon-nim. What do you mean "this bastard," you bastard?
• The streamer simply kept moving forward and crushed whoever stood in his way. The Demonic Cult just built their strategy around that.

No.

He clicked on the next post.

[The Orthodox Faction must've breathed a sigh of relief.]

A three-way war is a three-way war!

That's why the Demonic Cult guys are insane. What are they even trying to gain by targeting an enemy headquarters?

Do they have some personal grudge against the Orthodox Faction or something?

If the connection hadn't been cut yesterday, wouldn't they have fought an all-out battle right in front of Hebei, where the headquarters is, today?

And that's a problem even if they win.

Because if the Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult go all-out against each other, the Unorthodox Faction will just keep quietly grabbing other territories.

The Demonic Cult has been struggling so badly that people haven't really felt it, but the battlefield is still a three-way war.

If two sides commit everything to fighting each other, the third side gets all the benefits.

It was a post that understood the situation perfectly.

And the first comment under it said:

• 00

[The Demonic Cult is winning anyway.]

Those few words seemed to contain a lot of meaning.

Something like bitterness born from experience.

Now it was time to start his stream.

Seo Jun entered the capsule.

The moment he closed and opened his eyes, the world changed.

He immediately entered his personal channel and adjusted the streaming settings.

As for the stream title—

There were probably people who wanted to hear what he had to say after taking a hit like this.

But he chose the same title as yesterday.

[Starting Stream.]

"Ah. You got isolated with me in Shaanxi and you're so scared that you want me to hug you? Thanks for the donation. You're banned."

As always, he had no intention of actually banning them.

Surely nobody would turn something like this into a controversy, right?

• LMAOOOOOO
• A 100,000 won hug request, kek!
• There are so many people paying money just to get banned these days.
• Where do you think you're putting your hands? lol
• Someone clip this and post it in the controversy section. Donation scam lololol.

['Hey' donated 10,000 won!]

[So what's the plan today?]

Finally.

The donation he had been waiting for appeared.

A question about what he planned to do next.

The reason he had been waiting for this question was simple.

Because of the regular users who can play in Shaanxi.

Ordinary users were uncontrollable variables.

Since they couldn't be calculated reliably, they were usually treated as constants.

But if they united properly, they could become a tremendous force.

Of course, that required being able to utilize them amid constantly changing territorial situations.

This wasn't a matter of popularity or communication.

It was a matter of command.

But what if the objective was so simple that command wasn't even necessary?

That was his first goal.

"Hmm. You seem curious about what I'm going to do. Are you perhaps a spy?"

Seo Jun opened with that.

• A spy? Get him!
• That's definitely an Orthodox Faction player who came here to teabag.

Teabagging.

The act of repeatedly crouching over a defeated opponent to provoke them.

In other words, bad sportsmanship.

Seo Jun asked even though he already knew.

The viewers answered for him.

['No' donated 10,000 won!]

[I'm in Shaanxi because I followed you there. I want to do the same thing.]

The donor sounded wronged.

But Seo Jun knew.

The one laughing behind the screen after sending that donation was the Third Elder.

"Really? Why are you following me?"

• Well, I followed too.
• Because I want to fight together.
• A Demonic Cult player can't just ignore that.

['With the Streamer' donated 10,000 won!]

[Getting trapped in Shaanxi after attacking together with you is the greatest achievement of my twenty-five years of life!]

"Really? I'm going to start a bit late today, so then just wait—"

Seo Jun checked the donor's ID.

This one wasn't the Third Elder.

It was actually an ordinary viewer.

• LOL
• LOL
• LOL
• Is this how soldiers feel when they follow their lord into certain death?!

Messages of agreement flooded in from Demonic Cult players.

Orthodox Faction players, meanwhile, asked if he was scared.

After trading a few more comments back and forth and giving several reminders, the time finally arrived.

"It's seven o'clock. Let's check the results first."

The results of yesterday's battles began appearing on the map.

Gansu had been occupied by the Orthodox Faction.

There were no surprises there.

However, because the Demonic Cult had resisted fiercely, the Orthodox Faction had also spent a great deal of manpower.

Taking advantage of that opening, the Unorthodox Faction had expanded its green territory by capturing other regions.

Small miniatures representing each faction floated above territories and fought one another.

After the battle results appeared, the regions were dyed in the colors of the victorious factions.

"The Unorthodox Faction really spread themselves around nicely."

This was exactly why full-scale wars between factions were dangerous.

Yesterday's battle between the Demonic Cult and the Orthodox Faction had been close to an all-out war.

And only the Unorthodox Faction had profited from it.

"Huh? The Orthodox Faction is moving immediately this time."

As the map rearranged itself, red markers instantly appeared.

In Shaanxi.

Since it couldn't be the Demonic Cult, it had to be the Orthodox Faction.

But—

[Achillesgun]

[OrthodoxHonor]

[7777]

[RamenTastesGood]

Amazingly, there were fourteen of them.

Seo Jun narrowed his eyes.

He could see their intention.

"They're definitely planning to take Shaanxi back."

There was a reason they had committed so many people.

And the exact same number as him.

Most likely, they were saying:

"We'll spend this many resources here, so stop trying to defend Shaanxi and go gain advantages somewhere else."

It was as if they were saying:

"You can't stop us anyway, right? It's not like you're actually trapped here with no options."

In other words—

"It's a concession and a provocation at the same time."

A taunt telling him to be satisfied with this and get out of Shaanxi.

Seo Jun smiled.

He didn't know who had come up with the idea.

But they'll probably regret it.

• That's true.
• Just leave Shaanxi.
• Streamer, those guys are getting cocky. Let's go crush them.
• Just give the order, boss! We'll defend it!
• You really think you can take it? Are they looking down on us regular players?
• Well... aren't regular players worth looking down on?

He hadn't expected them to come out this aggressively from the start.

"Let's take it easy, everyone. The side that attacks first is usually the weaker one."

Seo Jun didn't take any action at all.

He leisurely ignored the chat asking why, if that was true, he had always launched the first attack the moment seven o'clock arrived.