Chapter 41

The words stamped across the screen were chilling enough just to look at.

The alliance territory will collapse?

From the alliance members’ frantic chatter that followed, Mo Yeonhoo could tell this was no ordinary situation.

—I’m losing my mind.

—Fuck, we’re so fucking screwed.

—Run, damn it! Ahhh!!!

—Move.

—Aaaah!!! What is happening?! Aaaah!!!

The alliance members at C7 and E7 all shrieked and ran for D8. From that alone, Yeonhoo instinctively understood that this core was something unbelievably important.

—Everyone except the people already moving, finish the repairs and keep defending your positions!

—Yes!

Yeonhoo had almost started running with the others toward the commotion, but at those words he stopped himself. The outer wall repairs still were not finished, so staying at C7 was the right call.

What’s a core?

While continuing the repairs, Yeonhoo searched “core” in the item dictionary.

<Zombie Village> Terminology Dictionary

: Alliance Core

Want to deliver a fatal blow to an enemy alliance?

Then find the alliance’s heart, the “core,” and destroy it!

In this game, the “alliance core” is exactly what it sounds like: the heart of the alliance. Massive buildings, defensive walls, and even magical power are all maintained around this core...!

The moment the core is destroyed, every structure in the alliance territory will collapse, and all stored resources and equipment will be exposed! 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

(However, the core’s location can be changed, so take care not to fall into a trap!)

The core seemed to be the center that allowed an alliance territory to take root in the field, and if it was damaged, the entire alliance territory could collapse. Just as Yeonhoo grasped how important it was—

—How did they get all the way in there? KimFactory, give us a briefing.

—Whoa—only the outer wall around there collapsed perfectly clean! What the hell is this? It’s basically the shortest route, and they’re faster than me!

—On my wayy!

—They were that fast...? Ah, this is weird. Just keep fighting for now.

—Dropped one rat bastard that was hiding....

—Aah! Sending another one~! Is that the last one?!

—There are only two total....

Hearing the voice chat, Yeonhoo relaxed a little. Fortunately, thanks to the alliance’s quick response, it seemed they had prevented the core from being destroyed.

But there was another problem.

—But I checked the bodies, and these guys aren’t from <Hawk> or <HamHidden>. EYE TO EYE....

—EYE TO EYE? Them?

—What? Why is that alliance...?

Eye to Eye?

The ones attacking the core were neither <Hawk> nor <HamHidden>, but a new alliance called EYE TO EYE. But the alliance members had no time to keep discussing it.

—Come back to E7! We’re getting attacked here!

—C7 is taking hits too. Need support.

It sounded like bombardment had started on the other two fronts as well, and chaos broke out everywhere.

—Boom! Boom-boom!

As <Hawk> started blasting their side of the outer wall like mad with cannons, Yeonhoo’s face went white. What was the point of frantically fixing it with a kit? One cannon shot and the wall’s durability dropped in an instant, crumbling into dust.

—This is insane.

—Ah, we need support here right now—

—I’m coming!

—We need support here too. When are you getting here?

In the middle of what was basically total pandemonium, a notification popped up too.

📌 [Alliance Emergency Alert — ShinJadu] 📌

⚠ EYE TO EYE has newly joined from the D8 coordinates

[Current Combat Status]

C7 - <Hawk>

E7 - <HamHidden>

D8 - EYE TO EYE / Infiltrated after confirming the core’s location

All three at once?

Even in their shock, everyone checked the alert and spoke up.

—All three are attacking us.

—Good lord, what is this~? Did all three surround us~?

—Can we even defend this with our current numbers?!

—Ha, I sent out an alert earlier, but most people said they can’t log in right now because of work or school.

—I’m gonna lose my mind~

They might somehow manage two, but once it became three alliances, this number of defenders did not look like enough.

—No, what the hell are they thinking? What are they gonna do about the server war? This is fucking insane.

At that, 1Poop1 snapped. Hearing those words, Yeonhoo suddenly remembered a YouTuber explaining that in Zombie Village, other alliances almost never ganged up to attack a top alliance with strong military power.

—Forget the server war, what are they planning to do about the international war? We’re the representatives.

—Wow~ they’ve seriously lost it!

Zombie Village had event battles called server wars, where servers fought each other, and international wars, where representative alliances from different countries fought. A server war was a server-versus-server battle, and if you lost, your side had to pay resources to the winners like a tax for a set period.

That was why, during that period, most alliances on the same server formed temporary alliances and sent resources to the top alliance to protect their server.

So for three alliances to attack a top alliance at the same time meant...

—Look at how much our military power has already been shaved off. And even they have to be taking huge resource losses just from respawning those cannons.

—They even touched the core? Looks like they came here dead set on completely wrecking us.

—I’m gonna lose it~

It was an attitude that said they did not care whether the server war was ruined, or the international war along with it.

—Hm, but if it’s many against one in the first place, don’t they usually announce ahead of time when they’re going in? Sending a notice is basic manners!

—That’s exactly what I’m saying, baby. What the hell.

—Touching the core crosses the line. Even if you loot the whole warehouse, you don’t touch that. That’s basic etiquette....

Since they were even aiming for the core, which could wipe the alliance out entirely, it was obvious they had a grudge against <47>. That only made the alliance members sound even more disgusted.

—Let’s focus for now. GoodLuck, restore the core as much as possible, and a few people stay there and guard the D side.... Ah... but Eye to— that alliance seems to have a few rankers, so I think that’s why they came in together... ha, what do we do...?

More than anything, the biggest problem was ShinJadu.

—...Damn it, they’re putting up another tower. Those two keep scraping at the outer wall with their two-top setup, what do we do...? We still have enough resources, right? Ah....

ShinJadu, who had been keeping her composure until now, finally started to crack. With pressure closing in from every direction, she sounded like she had lost her mind.

—Aaaah!!! This is so stressful....

—Calm down~ calm down~

—Ha, fuck....

The mood dropped in an instant. Of course, that did not mean everyone stopped doing anything.

—Just finish the repairs. We do what we have to do.

—Yes....

—Yeah, FUNK’s right~ Focus~ Fighting!

—Yeah! Fighting! We can do this!

—Yeah. Let’s go.

But what difference did that make?

—They got reinforcements....

—More people again, good grief~

The enemy side kept growing in number.

—Aah! Seriously, where are all these people even coming from at this hour? This is disgusting!

It was as if they had decided to drown <47> completely. Their numbers were nowhere near comparable to <47>’s.

—They’re putting up another tower. I’m gonna lose my mind.

—Where?

—C7.

Even in the middle of all this, FUNK groaned that another tower was going up. Standing with him, Yeonhoo immediately looked over the outer wall.

Three towers total?

Some distance away from the area where <Hawk> had built two watchtowers, another tower was going up.

—Judging by the color and the way they’re building it, I don’t think it’s <Hawk>.

—Then is another alliance joining in too? Four enemy teams?

—Four is way too fucking much.

—Ah... this is bad.... I’ll contact the leaders of those alliances first....

The new tower was going up at a crazed speed. They all looked like master builders or something. The speed was so abnormal that Yeonhoo felt the strength leave the hand he was using to repair.

Either way, no other alliance members could get to C7 right now.

Is this the end?

At this rate, FUNK and he would have to stop two teams at C7 by themselves. Realistically, that was impossible.

—Huh? Wait. What’s that?

Then FUNK shouted.

—Why is that guy over there?

Yeonhoo reflexively grabbed his binoculars and looked where FUNK was pointing.

Between <Hawk>’s two watchtowers stood a third tower, rising all by itself. When he zoomed in farther with the binoculars, he saw—

—Our leader’s over there...?

...Miu?

—What?!

—Aaaah— whaaat?! Our leader is in enemy territory?!

—Uh... huh? At this hourr? Isn’t our leader supposed to be at work? Reallyy?

—My leader?! Then why is he over there?!

That was right. Miu was there. While everyone reeled in shock, <Hawk> moved first.

—<Hawk> is trying to attack our leader.

Since Miu had instantly built a watchtower fairly close to <Hawk>’s towers, it was only natural that <Hawk> would try to pin him down.

But before they could respond properly, Miu suddenly threw something toward the enemy watchtower.

And not just one thing. Several of them, like a madman....

—What is my leader even doing over there? What is it? I need to know!

—He’s throwing smoke. No, wait, he’s just plastering them with rounds.

Signal flares, smoke rounds, incendiary rounds. The instant he hurled every kind of round he had, <Hawk>’s entire watchtower was swallowed in smoke.

What is he doing?

The moment Yeonhoo held his breath—

—Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Gunshots rang out from inside the smoke in a perfect rhythm.

Five shots at perfectly even intervals, like a machine firing.

And at the same time, through the pale smoke, five bodies from <Hawk> dropped.

“That’s insane.”

It was Miu’s one-shot, one-kill.