Chapter 73: Obey the Crown

When Raive called, the others entered immediately.

Since it only took him a few seconds to clean up the enemies, the regular players hadn’t caught up to them yet. So the preliminary work fell to just their little group.

Raive moved to neutralize the soldiers, cutting off their dominant arms. Whether the soldiers tried to fight back or not didn’t really matter.

Shymine followed up, freezing the wounds so they wouldn’t bleed to death.

Then there was Hershey, healing the few who were almost dead from bleeding—without fully restoring their lost limbs.

The rest just moved to gather the disabled enemies in one place, making sure none of them tried anything funny.

By the time the other players finally arrived, everything was already prepped for them. Raive sat at the king’s throne, wearing his oversized crown, trying to find a comfortable angle before giving up entirely.

[King’s Crown (Unique)]

[Gives the user the legitimacy of the kingdom, the authority of a king, allowing control over all citizens and soldiers within the realm.]

A simple, but powerful item.

He sat on the throne like any man—legs spread, elbows resting on his knees, chin propped in his hands, as if deep in thought.

"This throne sucks. A monoblock chair would’ve been better." He commented, gathering everyone’s attention.

"Anyway, with this, step one is cleared. For step two, as previously discussed, we’ll split into two groups. First group will defend the walls and throw these trash into the monster horde."

He explained, pointing a thumb at the pack of scared nobles and soldiers.

"As for the second group, they’ll be clearing the eight tribulation dungeons. I’ll handle the eighth myself, so decide who wants the rest among yourselves."

Now that they’d silenced the only opposition—the king and nobles—they held power over the kingdom. In short, they could enter the protected dungeons without fighting the soldiers guarding them.

Better yet, with Raive holding the king’s authority, he could command them to leave the players alone, or put them on wall duty instead.

But first, he had to show everyone that the said power had changed hands.

"Is there anyone here who can broadcast scenes to a wide area?" Raive asked the other players. "I need help with some information dissemination."

Someone raised their hand, shyly.

A woman with blonde hair covering half her face. She looked dark and withdrawn, but more than that, she gave off a strange sense of imbalance.

"I—I can project things I see onto large screens in midair... Would that work...?" She said.

"Does that include sound?"

"Y-Yes, it does..."

"Then that’s good enough."

Raive waved Khamish over. "Khamish, give her all the candies she needs to reach max stats. After that, she’ll help me announce the king’s transfer of power."

"W-What...?"

She looked stunned upon hearing that.

And when Khamish handed her a tray overflowing with stat-up candies, all she could do was gasp. Higher stats meant her skill would scale too—longer range, higher volume, and a much better video quality.

By the time she finished all the candies she needed, the other players had already reached the walls and begun defending them.

Hazel, Therese, and Shymine went with them.

The three split the wall into thirds, each watching over her own section. Hazel took the middle of the north gate. Therese, the southeast corner. Shymine, southwest.

They got straight to work funneling the monster wave.

Hazel simply copied Raive’s technique from before—digging deep holes and using the cleared dirt to build a secondary wall just before the real one.

Shymine kept it simpler. She raised tall ice pillars with narrow gaps, letting only a few monsters through at a time. Each pillar ran about 10 meters thick and and tall, and spanned 20 meters across. It should be sturdy enough that melting wasn’t a concern.

Therese worked differently.

She used her mana swords like drills, carving a long moat around her section, setting it far from where the walls were.

Sacrificing control for numbers, she summoned hundreds of swords to dig deeper and deeper, until the trench felt like a genuine abyss.

With the three’s handiwork, the pressure on the wall eased considerably.

Though they still had to fend off the soldiers interfering with them while they worked.

Right then—

[Citizens of the Kingdom, listen up!]

Above the castle, a screen a hundred meters across suddenly appeared. On it, Raive could be seen, seated on the throne, wearing the crown.

At his feet, a distraught man, shriveled and trembling like a lamb about to be sacrificed.

[This is urgent, so I’ll skip the greetings.]

Raive’s voice rang out loud enough that nobody could’ve missed it. Even the soldiers locked in combat with the other players looked up, shocked and confused.

[I am Raive Asterates, the one who started a coup to remove this useless king.] He said, kicking the trembling man’s head.

The former king rolled down a set of stairs before quickly crawling back to Raive’s feet, as if scared something worse would happen if he strayed even a moment longer.

[Now, I have usurped the throne and assumed the power of the king.] He declared.

[And with the power vested in me, I command all soldiers! Coordinate with my people and help fight the monsters assaulting the walls! Those guarding the entrances to the eight tribulation spaces, stand down and grant entry to anyone who wishes it!]

Those were the two commands he needed first and foremost.

[When the threat of monsters is gone, don’t worry—I shall return the throne to its rightful owner. But until then, listen to my command, and obey the crown!]

His voice echoed loudly, carrying with it an odd, involuntary weight of intimidation. Like a terrorist stating his demands.

Soldiers, who simply followed orders, quickly changed course and joined the players in defending the walls.

Citizens, with no business fighting, stayed obediently inside their homes.

They were still afraid of what might happen, but at least this time, there was no looting, no random beatings. No unnecessary deaths on either side.

Judging by that alone, this loop was faring far better than the first.

’Our plan is working, for now.’ Raive thought. ’But the tribulations are still ahead of us.’

The tribulations—as per Raive’s prediction—all required defending each monolith for 12 hours. And each of the eight dungeons brought its own set of monsters, like how the eighth had been insects.

Raive really didn’t want to go back there again, if he could help it, but...

Whether he liked it or not, the insect dungeon was genuinely hard to defend.

Insects varied wildly in size—some no bigger than a speck of dust, others large enough to swallow Raive whole. Any normal player would struggle to hold that ground.

In short, he was the only option.

"Alright..."

Once everything was arranged, Raive finally stood and walked off, muttering to himself.

"Time to claim the item used to sniff out those damned impostors!"