Chapter 130

With a deafening crash, the structure lurched. The two alliance members assigned to the watchtower on the right were now corpses beneath the collapsed debris.

While the survivors hurried to make repairs, Yeonhoo spotted two heavily armed figures standing atop what remained of the half-destroyed watchtower, their stances utterly unshaken.

“There are two L3s over there too?”

“Same on the left.”

At Kwon Mieon’s words, Mo Yeonhoo checked the watchtower on the left and found two L3 alliance members setting up a cannon there.

Two on ours, two on the left, two on the right....

It seemed they had dispatched two high-ranked alliance members to every watchtower.

But when Yeonhoo examined the other towers through his binoculars, something struck him as odd.

“Looks like every L3 team is doing something different.”

One team had sniper rifles. Another had set up cannons. Another was installing rockets.

And that wasn’t all.

“The watchtowers aren’t evenly spaced either.”

For defensive purposes, watchtowers were normally built at regular intervals, but the coordinates <System Error> had assigned them were spaced irregularly.

Doesn’t seem like it’s because of the terrain.

There had even been a massive boulder at their own assigned location, and they’d simply smashed it apart with pickaxes before building the tower.

So the terrain clearly wasn’t an obstacle.

Some are close together, some are farther apart? Wait.

Yeonhoo suddenly froze as a memory flashed through his mind.

Why does he keep going back and forth like that? Doing the same thing over and over like some kind of ritual....

It was, in a way, a completely random thing to remember right now.

But the instant the image of Opening walking repeatedly from outside the alliance territory all the way into its interior in the dead of night surfaced in his mind, Yeonhoo went still as if something had clicked.

No way....

Whoooosh!

Just then, the cannon installation on the left watchtower must have been completed, because a shell arced through the air toward the wall of <1st>’s alliance territory.

BOOM!

BOOM!!!

BOOM!!

At the same time, supporting fire erupted from other directions. Several more cannon shells and rockets slammed into the wall together, bringing sections of it crashing down.

The thick dust and smoke kicked up by the bombardment slowly began to clear.

And the instant the exposed interior of <1st>’s territory peeked through like flesh revealed beneath torn skin, Kwon smiled.

“Yeonhoo, isn’t this fascinating?”

The sentence was phrased like a question, but his calm tone made it sound as though he’d already expected something like this.

His voice should have been drowned out by the rockets and cannon shells exploding all around them, followed by a furious storm of gunfire.

Yet Yeonhoo heard it more clearly than anything else.

“Resource storage, training ground, weapons storage....”

Every single place being bombarded through the binoculars was—

“I wonder how they’re managing to hit only the areas with important buildings.”

—a critical facility at the heart of the alliance territory.

“It almost looks like they already knew where everything was.”

It was impossible to believe otherwise.

Bang! Bang-bang!

While Yeonhoo and Kwon stood there momentarily distracted, the people on the enemy side weren’t exactly sitting idle.

As NeunSseop and ASAV dropped prone and opened fire with sniper rifles, return fire came immediately. Their own watchtower became a bullet magnet in seconds, and the situation rapidly escalated.

(Alliance) NeunSseop: repairs pls~

“Let’s repair ours too for now.”

“Okay.”

To avoid drawing suspicion, Yeonhoo and Kwon joined their teammates in repairing the watchtower.

Meanwhile, more of the alliance’s higher-ranked members continued arriving as reinforcements.

And the result was....

(Alliance) nnppcc: Great work, everyone!

Total time elapsed: 8 hours 45 minutes.

(Alliance) nnppcc: We won!

<System Error> had defeated <1st>.

******

(Alliance) TteokbokkiTycoonRank1: gg everyone

(Alliance) PAGODANUAL: gg

(Alliance) PigWave: great work everyone!!

(Alliance) Yellow2: gg

(Alliance) Wicheon: Great work, everyone.

(Alliance) 0Binoculars0: everyone worked sooo hard for so long!

(Alliance) ThatsMyAfterimage: gg

(Alliance) DoingMyBestDPS: Thank you~ Great work, everyone~~

As the congratulations rapidly filled the chat, Yeonhoo and Kwon both wore strange expressions.

And understandably so.

Yeonhoo had only participated in a handful of Siege Wars, but even he knew how unbelievable this outcome was.

How did that happen? They crushed them that fast?

The ranking gap between the two alliances was enormous.

<1st> had quite a few allies show up too, but they couldn’t even help.

<1st> had abundant resources, a huge membership, and even allied forces.

Yet they had still lost to <System Error>.

There was no opening for them to get in.

The entire perimeter had been packed with watchtowers from the start, leaving the allied forces no route of entry.

And <System Error>’s response speed was anything but normal.

Whenever someone asked for help because their tower looked close to collapsing, high-ranked members would suddenly appear from who-knew-where and rush straight to that tower en masse....

They’re actually really good at this game.

<System Error> was not an opponent to underestimate.

Their response speed, coordination, even the way they seemed to possess predictive data on how their enemy would move—it all felt exceptionally polished.

Who the hell is HHH for this alliance to be this good?

Yeonhoo had thought he might finally get to see them this time.

But HHH, the leader of <System Error> and presumably the person directing this entire operation, had never issued a single order to the lower-ranked members.

They hadn’t spoken at all.

And I never even got a chance to properly watch the officers.

The high-ranked members and officers seemed to be receiving separate instructions. Every time Yeonhoo tried to observe one of them, they moved somewhere else, making it impossible to follow them around.

“They’re starting the final cleanup. We should probably put our gear on soon, use the Stealth items, and get closer.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

L2 members were currently carrying out the final cleanup inside <1st>’s burning alliance territory.

Though “cleanup” was putting it generously.

They were basically stripping the place bare.

Yeonhoo and Kwon had originally planned to pretend to help while staying close enough to observe, but even that was restricted to L2 and above, so they couldn’t get anywhere near the site.

Probably because they’re about to loot the core.

It had been the same with the Animal Love alliance.

Once everyone else had cleared out, hadn’t only a handful of people gone to the core and taken something from it?

“When should we sneak in?”

“It’s still chaotic, so cleanup will probably take a while. Let’s just equip the gear we hid and watch the situation while we rest.”

“Sounds good.”

“It’d be nice to secure a position in advance, though....”

The two quickly changed into their hidden equipment, then settled on top of a cliff some distance away.

“Oh, we should be able to see from around here.”

“This is good.”

It was a surprisingly decent vantage point.

Both the outer and inner walls of <1st>’s alliance territory had already been badly damaged, leaving its interior plainly visible.

“Oh, right. Put this on too, Yeonhoo.”

While they watched the alliance members busily looting the territory below, Kwon suddenly sent him something through the mail.

Wraith Cloak

Effect: Upon equipping, your customized appearance will be hidden and your nickname will be displayed as <???>.

Warning: Using chat will remove anonymity.

If you take damage, this item will be destroyed immediately and your identity will be exposed.

(Single-use consumable. Once your identity is exposed, the item cannot be used again.)

A cloak?

The item icon showed an eerie cloak that seemed to ripple with black smoke.

It looked strangely familiar.

Yeonhoo did as Kwon said and equipped it.

The nickname above his character disappeared immediately, replaced by three question marks.

“Huh? This is....”

“What is it, Yeonhoo? You know this item?”

Of course he knew it.

There was no way he wouldn’t.

It’s the item those VITA guys were wearing back then.

It was the exact same cloak all of them had been wearing when he first encountered VITA.

But Yeonhoo couldn’t let Kwon know that he recognized it.

“No? Never seen it before.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”

The moment he admitted knowing this item, every ounce of effort he’d put into pretending he wasn’t 0momo0 would go straight down the drain!

Though at this point, both of us are basically pretending not to see the elephant in the room....

Still, Yeonhoo gritted his teeth and played dumb.

Kwon watched him, the corner of his mouth twitching silently.

Meanwhile, Yeonhoo turned his cloaked character around several times, inspecting it with genuine fascination.

“This thing is actually really cool. I was taller than you before, but now we’re exactly the same height and build.”

The item concealed their entire outward appearance, which made the two cloaked characters look almost like clones.

“Wanna take a picture?”

“Let’s use the in-game camera.”

“Oh, there’s one of those too? Nice.”

Amused by the sight of their identical characters, Yeonhoo circled around Kwon a few times before agreeing to take a picture together.

“Yeonhoo, could you enable interactions? I want to pose us.”

“Sure.”

Yeonhoo had taken screenshots before, but he’d never used the in-game camera to take an actual picture.

He waited eagerly for the shot as their two characters moved closer together.

Is he taking it now? We’re standing this close, so maybe some cute pose....

But his expression quickly froze.

The two characters standing side by side suddenly overlapped.

What the hell?

Then they started running their hands over each other, even tilting their chins—

(Notification) NotMiyoung used the ‘Passionate Kiss’ interaction on IOnly!

...?

What the hell is this?!

Notes

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