Chapter 126

“They want us to join the Siege War?”

A Siege War, of all things.

“Until now, they’ve only taken the higher-ranked members because of the rewards.”

“Since the announcement went out to the entire alliance, I guess everyone’s going today.”

<SystemError> had so many members that letting everyone participate in Siege Wars would probably make reward distribution difficult. Until now, they hadn’t even sent Siege War notifications to their lower-ranked members.

Apparently, today was an exception.

“Want to join?”

“Of course!”

There was no way they could let an opportunity this good slip by. Once the Siege War began, even the high-ranking members who normally stayed in the Inner Area would have to come out.

And we’ll finally get to see whether <SystemError> really steals cores. If they do, we’ll know whether these guys are actually VITA.

They might even witness something decisive. No matter how much <SystemError> resembled VITA so far, they still had no definitive proof.

Then another notification arrived with a ding.

[Notification] @L5, @L6, @L7, @L8, @L9, @L10

We will be explaining the Siege War strategy to members from L5 through L10, so please gather at the designated coordinates!

“They only tagged down to L5. Looks like L4 and above move separately.”

At Kwon Mieon’s quiet observation, Yeonhoo clicked his tongue.

If they had stayed up last night and pushed through the quests until they hit L4, they could have moved with the higher-ranked members.

“Should we go?”

“Yeah.”

Putting his disappointment aside, the two headed for the designated coordinates.

“Whoa, there are a ton of people. Why are they lined up?”

The area was already packed with users, all standing in a single-file line. At the end of it sat a huge box.

(Alliance) nnppcc: Please put all equipped gear and weapon items into your bags and place the bags in the box! The box cannot be looted, and if you write your names on your bags, I’ll take screenshots, so nobody will be able to steal from anyone else. :)

Yeonhoo’s eyes widened when he saw people putting bags full of their equipment and items inside.

“Aren’t we supposed to be going into battle? Why are they making everyone take off their gear?”

“It is strange.”

If anything, this was the time to upgrade their weapons. Why would they make everyone strip off every piece of gear and surrender their weapons?

“And more than anything, I don’t understand why they’re mobilizing players this low-level for a Siege War at all.”

Dragging along complete beginners who looked like they could barely throw a rock made no sense whatsoever.

(Alliance) nnppcc: Please don’t hold up the line! Put your equipment and bags in the box as quickly as possible~!

While they were talking, it became Yeonhoo and Kwon’s turn.

Ugh, I don’t want to hand mine over. Should I just pretend to put it in?

Charging into a war without so much as a knife felt completely wrong.

But nnppcc was watching them, which made pretending difficult.

Then—

Ding, ding!

Two notifications sounded in quick succession, and Yeonhoo’s mailbox lit up.

“Take it, Yeonhoo.”

“What is this?”

“Gear.”

Apparently Kwon had sent him something.

Yeonhoo opened his mailbox and found an entire equipment set inside.

This is way better than what I was wearing.

The gear and weapons were so much better there was hardly any comparison. Yeonhoo stared at them in shock.

“What is all this?!”

“Put everything you’re wearing into the box, then switch to those.”

Oh.

“...So we’re just pretending we don’t have any gear?”

“Yes. How are we supposed to go to war without weapons?”

Kwon had never intended to enter the Siege War unarmed in the first place.

Hearing him say it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world made Yeonhoo laugh despite the situation.

It was such a Miu thing to do—finding some way, any way, to bring weapons along.

“I could’ve bought my own....”

“Hurry up and transfer your stats. It’s almost our turn.”

“Okay, got it.”

While the two secretly transferred the stats from their old equipment to the new gear, most of the other alliance members seemed to have finished surrendering theirs.

Hope you’re doing okay, my 0momo0....

Seeing everyone reduced to their grubby default-character outfits suddenly made Yeonhoo nostalgic for his bald main character.

The Mechanic he’d switched to handled surprisingly well and was fun to play, but attachment to your first character was a powerful thing.

(Alliance) nnppcc: All right, everyone! Take one sleeping bag and one backpack from here, then we’ll move out~ Please make sure you follow me closely!

At nnppcc’s instruction, everyone grabbed a sleeping bag and backpack before setting off.

The backpacks contained a small amount of medical supplies, stone axes, and resources such as wood and iron ore.

“Guess we’re going pretty far.”

“Looks like it.”

Perhaps worried that such a large group moving together would attract attention, nnppcc took a long, winding route exclusively through the forest.

A trip that should have taken one minute stretched into four or five.

After they had been walking for quite a while, nnppcc finally stopped in a forest and instructed everyone to set it as their respawn point.

“So if I die, I’ll wake up here?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

Respawning in a forest like this....

Fortunately, their Hideout Installation skill was already maxed, so setting everything up didn’t take long.

The same was true for the other alliance members.

In no time at all, everyone had built their hideouts and buried the sleeping bags that marked their respawn points.

Then they started moving again.

Until finally—

(Alliance) nnppcc: We’ve arrived in front of the alliance we’ll be fighting! Thank you, everyone, for following me so well!

They had reached their destination.

And when Yeonhoo saw the fortress in front of him, he froze.

He had assumed that if they were bringing along this many beginners, then surely they would at least be fighting a relatively weak opponent.

But the place in front of them belonged to....

(Alliance) nnppcc: Today, we will be attacking the <1st> alliance!

Their name was literally <1st>.

The number-one alliance on the Eden server.

“They’re seriously taking a bunch of beginners to attack the number-one alliance?”

“Yes.”

“But <SystemError> is... only around twelfth place.”

“Right.”

The difference in strength was absurd.

“And if we’re fighting an alliance that strong, why did they make everyone take off their gear? Shouldn’t they be giving people weapons instead? One cannon shot from that fortress looks like it could kill ten people over here....”

<SystemError> might have a lot of members, but most of the people here were beginners.

That only made the whole thing harder to understand.

(Alliance) Battery: WE’RE attacking THAT???? :(

(Alliance) TextbookJungsuk: wait fr? actually???

(Alliance) DoongDoongManana: Is that even possible...

(Alliance) ipioi: holy shit lol

Naturally, the alliance members were just as stunned.

“I suspected something like this. Looks like keeping our gear on would only screw us over.”

“You mean we should take ours off too?”

“Yes. I’ll mark some coordinates. Let’s stash our equipment there for now.”

While Yeonhoo was still bewildered, Kwon seemed to have figured something out and was already moving quickly.

“Why...?”

Yeonhoo was the only one who still couldn’t follow the logic.

But once nnppcc began issuing orders in alliance chat, Yeonhoo finally understood what Kwon had noticed—

and exactly what this strategy was.

(Alliance) nnppcc: I’ll send the group assignments in the Alliance tab shortly. Form your groups, spread out to your assigned coordinates, and keep building watchtowers there!

<SystemError> had never recruited beginners because they wanted to help them grow.

(Alliance) Battery: um... :( what happens if we die?

(Alliance) nnppcc: Dying is completely fine! If you die, you’ll respawn at the point we just set, so simply run back here and resume building watchtowers.

So the people here are expendable....

All this time, <SystemError> had been raising its low-ranked members into an endless supply of human shields equipped only with the utility skills necessary for Siege Wars.

They could build watchtowers quickly.

They could transport alliance resources at high speed.

They had every kind of repair skill.

And on top of that, they could respawn endlessly.

But that wasn’t even the full extent of what <SystemError> had planned.

(Alliance) nnppcc: Just keep building, building, and building! Then, once we join you, all you need to do is transport resources according to our orders!

(Alliance) nnppcc: We would never make our newbies fight a difficult war! You only need to transport supplies and build towers. We’ll take full responsibility and fight on the front lines!

(Alliance) nnppcc: And of course, rewards will be distributed properly according to contribution!

“These guys are funny.”

Kwon gave a humorless laugh.

“If you die during a Siege War, all the contribution you’ve accumulated gets reset.”

“What? Then....”

“The beginners are going to keep dying, so their contribution will stay close to zero. There’ll barely be anything for them to receive.”

So the low-ranked members who were about to die over and over again wouldn’t even get a meaningful share of the rewards.

(Alliance) ipioi: oh thank god lol

(Alliance) 0Intersection0: damn i was worried lol thx thx

(Alliance) Puppy: :( you guys are always working so hard for us

(Alliance) nnppcc: Of course! We all have to help each other out!

(Alliance) CaseS: But wouldn’t it be better if we wore full gear and fought with you?

nnppcc didn’t mention the contribution issue at all.

(Alliance) nnppcc: That would put you all in too much danger :(

(Alliance) nnppcc: It’s fine if we get looted, but we can’t let your items get stolen! haha

Instead, they made it sound as though they were the ones making some enormous sacrifice.