Chapter 358 - 259: If You Lose, You’ll Be Made into the Base (2)

Chapter 358: Chapter 259: If You Lose, You’ll Be Made into the Base (2)

Leon smiled. Trying to beat him by looking up a guide beforehand? ’That’s a real insult to my talent.’

After a moment’s hesitation, Leon chose the Human Alliance Army.

"Proceed to the new player tutorial?"

’No way I’m doing that. What kind of pro plays the tutorial?’

"Please select a difficulty. Easy: Suitable for players who have never played a real-time strategy game."

Even though Leon had no idea what a "real-time strategy game" was, he chose "Hard" without hesitation.

That was the confidence of a pro.

"Good morning."

Starting the Human campaign triggered another cutscene. It took place in what looked like a military camp, with a beautiful woman.

For once, Leon chose not to skip. He was quite interested in the story of this war between humans and devils. Besides, ’if I’m going to be a hero, wouldn’t it be lame not to know what I’m fighting for?’

Although the cutscene was well-made, Zog had still thoughtfully included a skip option. Watch it or don’t—the choice was left to the player.

"Commander, I am your intelligence officer."

’Commander?’

Leon noted the title.

’Don’t commanders usually stay away from the front lines?’

"As you know, the Feilin Continent is suffering a full-scale invasion by the devils. Our forces are currently in disarray. Recently, a Devil Legion landed in Twin Tower City and occupied it. Fortunately, the Soron Mage Tower is still holding out. We need you to command Holy Knight Tanya, enter the Soron Tower, and re-establish contact..."

Leon had thought he would be controlling Holy Knight Tanya directly.

He wasn’t sure what "command" meant in this context.

The mission briefing ended and the Illusion vanished. In its place was a city model on a sand table that looked almost real, surrounded by a vast fog of war.

Curious, Leon reached out to touch the model, but his hand passed right through. It wasn’t solid.

’So amazing.’

The visual effects were unlike any game he had ever played before.

He recognized the scene on the sand table as Twin Tower City. On the sea, several Devil warships were bombarding the shore while a group of Human Warriors, holding massive shields, struggled to fight back.

Leon had no idea what to do. On one side of the sand table were empty squares, and on the other was a pile of virtual buttons he didn’t know how to use.

His extensive experience with fighting games and side-scrolling platformers was completely useless here.

"Haha, serves you right for skipping the tutorial," one of his buddies next to him laughed. "Now you don’t know how to play, do you? I’m already on the second level!"

"I don’t need a tutorial to figure it out," Leon said stubbornly.

But he wasn’t just bluffing; he really did have a talent for games.

After using Tanya to blow up a few Devil warships and link up with other Human Warriors, Leon didn’t rush to advance. Instead, he started testing what all the buttons did.

He quickly figured out most of their functions.

Select units by level, select units of the same type, rally, form control groups, select control group, attack-move, deploy, patrol, spread out, hold position, set waypoints...

The functionality was incredibly deep.

Even though he hadn’t finished the first level, Leon was already starting to love this game.

He was certain this game had a very high skill ceiling.

Leon loved games that were worth mastering, the kind that could distinguish him from average players.

That’s why he never liked playing puzzle games.

He was addicted to fighting games because for most people, playing meant just randomly wiggling the joystick and mashing buttons. For him, playing meant executing moves with split-second precision and outwitting his opponents.

But he could use one hand to pin a button-masher in the corner and keep them there.

From the looks of it, Red Alert was that kind of game too.

Leon decided that after he finished the campaign, he would go hone his skills in online matches.

He’d always had one goal: to defeat Toto head-on in a match.

Since Toto rarely played fighting games anymore, Leon couldn’t run into her in ranked matches, and he wasn’t any good at auto chess, her main streaming game.

This new game, Red Alert, was the perfect opportunity.

Whenever the Zog Group released a new game, Toto was guaranteed to play it intensely for a while.

Leon blazed through the story campaign levels.

Because he had taken the time to seriously learn the controls, combined with his cautious and meticulous playstyle, he made sure to familiarize himself with the new content in each level. He made it all the way to level ten without getting stuck once.

Meanwhile, the classmates who had been ahead of him earlier were all stuck on different levels—and they were playing on Easy difficulty.

"Leon, did you pass the third level? I’ve been stuck here for almost two hours. How did you beat it? Can you help me?" a classmate pleaded.

"Sorry, it’s not that I don’t want to help, but you’re playing the Devil Camp and I’m playing the Human Camp. That makes us ’enemies’ right now."

Leon replied while still focused on his controls.

The others’ tactic of trying to distract him with conversation had no effect on him whatsoever.

The more Leon played, the more hooked he got.

This game was just too interesting. Not only was the gameplay of commanding an entire army completely new to him, but through all the levels he’d played, every single one had introduced something new.

It wasn’t like many of the other level-based games he’d played, where later stages had no new tricks and were obviously just rehashed and upgraded versions of earlier ones.

While playing through the campaign, Leon had already developed a few effective tactics of his own, which he planned to test out in online matches after he finished.

Just as he was about to reach the final level, a few of his classmates stopped playing, glanced at each other, and instantly formed a united front.

They couldn’t let Leon beat the game. None of them wanted to do his homework for a week.

They decided to resort to some off-board tactics.

"Ahem, it’s getting late."

"Yeah, yeah, look, it’s already dark outside."

"Leon, didn’t you promise your mom you’d be home by a certain time?"

"That’s right, I remember that too. If you don’t go home soon, you’ll get grounded, won’t you?"

His classmates chimed in one after another.

But Leon acted as if he were deaf. His left hand moved over the virtual buttons so fast it left afterimages, while his right hand directed several control groups, just like a brilliant commander.

He had reached the final level.

More and more players gathered behind him to watch. No one in the arcade had beaten the game on Hard difficulty yet, neither the Human Camp nor the Devil Camp.

Getting the first clear was considered an honor in the gaming community, so everyone crowded around to watch, ready to witness the arcade’s first player to beat the game.

Crowded behind Leon, many who had already played Red Alert were shocked by his control.

"Hey, did you see that? How are his dogs so strong? A single one just took down a whole squad of Pervert Demons. My dogs get killed after taking out just one."

Dog micro was one of the little tricks Leon had figured out over the past few hours. By using various stop-and-go micromanagement techniques, their combat effectiveness was off the charts.

"What’s he doing with his left hand?"

"Setting control groups."

"Control groups?"

"Yeah. You split your army into different groups so you can control each one separately."

"Huh? There’s a function for that?"

"Of course. Didn’t you beat the game on Easy?"

"Yeah, I beat it. But I never used control groups. I just built a ton of High Level units and A-moved them all together," he replied, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

The others around him nodded in agreement.

’What? Control groups? Never heard of ’em, never used ’em. If the tutorial doesn’t teach it, it doesn’t exist.’

...

「Half an hour later.」

"Cleared!"

Leon threw his arms up in excitement.

A squad of the Church’s High Tier Holy Knights had successfully taken the heavily defended Hell Fortress.

"Phew—"

Leon let out a breath of relief. The final level had given him quite a bit of trouble, taking a full forty minutes to beat, but in the end, his superior skill won out.

He had completed the Human Alliance Army campaign without having to restart once.

In the final cutscene, Tanya captured the Hell Duke.

The watching players all applauded. Though they didn’t really want to admit it, this kid was genuinely better than them.

Leon stretched his stiff neck and turned to look at the time.

"Ah! Crap, I’m screwed if I don’t get home right now!"

With that, he pushed through the crowd of onlookers and prepared to bolt.

"Hey, Leon!" At the arcade entrance, the guy from the front desk called out to him and handed him a flyer. "You’re so good at Red Alert, you should try entering this tournament."

"A tournament? What tournament?" Leon asked, taking the flyer.

World Virtual E-sports Championship—Sutton Southern Region Qualifiers.

All expert gamers are welcome. The strongest player in the Sutton Kingdom’s southern region will be determined, and they will represent the Sutton Kingdom in next year’s World Virtual E-sports Championship to compete against the best from all over.

The winner of the qualifiers will receive a prize of Ten Thousand Gold Coins, as well as a mysterious gift from the Zog Group.

And the names of the losers will be forged into the base of the winner’s trophy.

Do you dare to accept the challenge?