Episode 92
Day 13, 7 o'clock.
The results of the day 12 battlefield came out.
"One region occupied by the Demon Cult. One region they've occupied. The Unorthodox Faction also exchanged one each."
Both the Demon Cult and the Unorthodox Faction succeeded in occupying one region each.
"A decent result."
All three factions overall focused on defense.
You take this region? Then I'll take one too. Give this back.
Only minor exchanges like that occurred.
However, when looking at the detailed results, the value of the lands exchanged between the Demon Cult and the Orthodox Faction was not equal.
The land the Demon Cult took was at the northern tip, a land that approaches the Orthodox Faction's headquarters in a straight line, but its value is not high.
Conversely, the land taken from the Demon Cult is in the middle, bordering both the Unorthodox Faction and the Demon Cult.
Such land is highly valuable.
And lands where all three factions face each other have the disadvantage of being easily lost if two factions jointly attack.
However, even if they succeed in occupying through a joint attack, it is occupied by the faction with higher contribution, so joints attacks are generally not conducted well, thus that disadvantage is not greatly highlighted.
That implies it's a land that is generally well-defended.
Since they took one such region, it was a favorable exchange for the Orthodox Faction.
[Eoujeong]
- Look at him starting the game right away
- No business ethics
- This is why those Demon Cult bastards, tsk tsk!
Hanpunman checked the chat and examined the red lights on the map.
Unlike yesterday, several red markers had appeared, but there was only one place to check.
'So they weren't satisfied with what they took yesterday.'
They really are attacking.
Are they aiming for the headquarters?
I don't know.
It doesn't seem like they coordinated with the other Demon Cult guys.
"We have to block them."
As he muttered, his colleague beside him heard it and tapped his shoulder.
"Yeah. Let's block them for now. If the Heavenly Demon occupies and pushes in this time too, there'll only be one region left to the headquarters."
That's still somewhat of a margin, but normally, yielding one by one is how you get eaten.
What happened to Britain, which yielded one after another to Germany just before World War II?
That famous 'Peace for our time' could be repeated.
- So who's going?
A day had passed and they were sufficiently prepared, so many volunteered to go.
The most frequent discussion in the Experts' Association the day before was precisely how to beat the Heavenly Demon 3 to 1 in an occupation battle.
Seeing that, Hanpunman was even more convinced that the hot fix was applied favorably to the Heavenly Demon, but it might not be the case, so for now.
We'll see.
- I'll go and plan the strategy
It wasn't his chat.
Hanpunman didn't even like fighting and battling against the Heavenly Demon.
- Let's go
- Send 4 people, and if we get a 3 vs 1 matching, let's go accordingly
- Ok
Heroes.
Fighting.
Hanpunman mournfully shifted his gaze from the chat window to the map.
A list of regions with red marks was added.
The Demon Cult had four members.
Nicknames were already up, as if they had reacted promptly.
'Seems like they thought similarly. Seeing that reinforcements came, and three of them at that.'
Of course, Seojun wouldn't be equivalent to one ranker.
[Cheonma14]
[Sanjeokwang]
[Dangso]
[Dansagi Joayo]
The Orthodox Faction also had four.
[Angmaneun Beuradeoreul Ipneunda]
[No Gosu]
[Cheonsalseong]
[Hunsudwabwa]
Is Cheonsalseong doing infinite tries?
It's amazing how he keeps losing and still tries.
As the 12-win streak came to mind, anger surged, but Hanpunman shook his head vigorously to cool down.
'It'll depend on how the game is matched.'
He thinks about the future response.
The goal of this battlefield can be summarized in one sentence.
Stop the Heavenly Demon.
It was a hunch only he had, but his hunches sometimes work really well.
[Matched. Let's go catch the Orthodox Faction.]
An unpleasant voice resounded.
* * *
[We won thanks to me.]
[Don't talk nonsense, Dangso.]
[Hah. What do you think would have happened without my support.]
Hanpunman let out a hollow laugh at their conversation.
Dangso is the same as ever.
To start with the result, the matching became 3 vs 2, not 3 vs 1.
The detailed reason why it wasn't 4 vs 3 is known only to Mubi Soft, but he roughly had an idea.
The balance is quite appropriate.
Ultimately, it was an appropriate balance where killing Seojun even once would make the game easy to unfold.
'But I don't know if that's really possible.'
[Of course we won.]
[Why are you speaking so calmly. Thanks to me, the Demon Cult now has a chance to win.]
[Dangso.]
[Why do you call me.]
[Shut up and let's leave the game now.]
Really consistent.
Anyway.
If all future matchings are set as 3 vs 2, the conclusion is that stopping the Heavenly Demon through the game will be really difficult.
Should I just leave it to my colleagues?
- In a 3 vs 2, if the base...
- No, instead of that, rather...
Hanpunman trusts the other rankers who are earnestly discussing.
But even so, he wasn't the type to sit back and wait for others to do it for him.
Somehow he racked his brain and looked for a way...
"Ah."
Hanpunman's eyes narrowed and then relaxed repeatedly.
* * *
Seojun loosened his neck. As expected of a virtual reality trying to implement conditions as realistically as possible, cracking sounds were heard and a slight coolness spread from the neck through his whole body.
After loosening his hands one by one, Seojun came out of the game.
"Why did the Orthodox Faction only test us once?"
Day 13 had ended.
It's not that the mode closed at 10 p.m. It just means there's nothing more he can do today.
- Are you going to hand it over!
- If this continues, it's the headquarters lol
- They must have a plan
Seojun nodded, looked around, sat on a nearby chair, and leaned his back against the wall.
It's a personal channel, so it's quiet.
Rolling his eyes, he checked game messages, group chats, and communities to grasp the situation, then spoke quietly.
"I should end the broadcast now."
Collecting his fishing hooks.
- ?
- Why?
- ??
- Don't go
- Has the instant broadcast ending flared up again...!
As they said, ending quickly is indeed correct.
Normally he would have watched videos brought by viewers, laughed, communicated, and argued.
"I have an appointment with a friend."
Today, there was a reason.
- Hehe
- Pretending to have no friends, what's this?
- Suspicious. Smells suspicious, girlfriend maybe?
- This is plausible
- Is it me or a girlfriend, choose
As expected of masters of slander, they go way too far from the start.
"It's nothing like that."
Seojun firmly cut it off and pressed the streaming end button.
Even to hold onto the twelve thousand viewers longer, broadcasting long would be good, but there was something more important.
- Goodbye ㅠㅠ
- Bye
Afterwards, Seojun came out of the capsule, quickly washed, and sat in front of the computer.
Going to meet a friend was a lie.
Where would he have a friend to meet?
'That is a bit sad though.'
Seojun looked back on his past life and searched for the official website of 'For the Sake of Hyeop'.
Then he entered the site and brought up the battlefield map on the left and the chat room on the right.
[Eouma]
He wanted to accurately grasp how users moved within the battlefield.
To check during the broadcast would require quite cumbersome tasks and he wouldn't be able to fully concentrate.
There's also the method of watching after everything is over.
But it's undeniable that experiencing it firsthand on site is the most effective to understand what psychology was at play behind such judgments in real time.
The primary goal of the Demon Cult is to blow away the Orthodox Faction's headquarters.
Therefore, all current movements and intentions were focused on not revealing that goal.
- The Unorthodox Faction is attacking, we might need to counterattack appropriately
- The Orthodox Faction seems to be trying to poke at several places today
- But aren't they defending Shaanxi?
Shaanxi refers to the region Seojun attempted to occupy today.
It's not that the region was systematically named so, or that it's at the exact location of Shaanxi.
Roughly, the regions are divided near Shaanxi, so they just call it Shaanxi for convenience.
The Gansu he occupied yesterday was west of Shaanxi. And towards the east.
Shaanxi attacked today.
Shanxi to the east of that.
Finally, Hebei where the Orthodox Faction's headquarters is located, you could say they're calling the regions like that.
- Seems like they're not intending to defend?
- They might deploy towards the end
- That's a bit iffy. Are they fishing to confirm whether we're aiming for Shaanxi?
- We probably shouldn't deploy more and attack first
As the Orthodox Faction appeared to be watching idly, numerous interpretations were exchanged.
The aim was to slowly approach while causing a bit of confusion that Seojun was playing separately to some extent, so they couldn't openly attack Shaanxi.
"Interesting."
- No Gosu appeared on the Unorthodox Faction side
- Unknown also appeared south of Hunan
Collective land-grabbing. Psychological warfare. Or something.
I can see why these people became veterans.
"Haven't they said that new influx to 'For the Sake of Hyeop' is sufficient?"
Even so, the reason it's said to be veteran-heavy is probably because after going through a battlefield like this, even new users generally can't avoid getting to know each other.
'Indeed, interesting.'
Seojun's lips curved up in satisfaction.
Ding.
A personal message came from the Third Elder.
[Third Elder: Cheonma-nim, you worked hard today as well!]
[Cheonma14: Thank you. But isn't it not over yet?]
[Third Elder: That's true, but. The Orthodox Faction is really lukewarm.]
Does that mean they have leeway?
[Cheonma14: Will the Shaanxi occupation fail today?]
[Third Elder: The Orthodox Faction is currently conserving personnel, and we are the same. If the enemy fully commits to the defense of Shaanxi, we too will reveal our true colors today.]
Even at the cost of exposing the strategy, they intend to take Shaanxi today.
[Cheonma14: I see.]
[Third Elder: By the way, Cheonma-nim. It seems the amount of users following you is considerable.]
[Cheonma14: What do you mean by that?]
[Third Elder: Among the regular users who play the game a lot, besides those in the chat room, you know.]
[Third Elder: It seems quite a number of those people are moving following Seojun-nim.]
For users who enjoy the game a bit more deeply, watching broadcasts or communities is the basics of basics.
And a good number of Demon Cult users showed reactions like this.
[This battlefield. If you're a Demon Cult fan trusting and following only the Heavenly Demon lol You know? Give your recommendation]
[The Heavenly Demon said he would eliminate the Orthodox Faction. I'm merely following that.]
[I do not doubt.]
[If it becomes small help to the steps of the Greatest Under Heaven, I'll be satisfied with that...]
Seojun laughed and glossed over these posts, but the Third Elder seemed to think differently.
The Third Elder said that based on calculations from the day before, they clearly lost a region to the Unorthodox Faction that they shouldn't have.
The reason being, of course, unexplainable unless it was the absence of the general user base, and while such cases are common.
This case was somewhat loose, so it was a sufficiently suspicious situation.
The absence of the general user base was caused by people gravitating towards Seojun.
Since what they needed wasn't detailed dispersion and coordination, it could be good news.
'Anyway, is today going smoothly as well?'
There's no way the Orthodox Faction would so easily hand over Shaanxi, a region close to the headquarters, without any countermeasures.
- What are they thinking
- They're only defending where it stings and not attacking anywhere?
- They're hiding their power
Eventually, at 8:40, the Demon Cult rankers who learned the Orthodox Faction's goal showed a uniformly flustered reaction.
- The Orthodox Faction appeared!
- So many. Seems they plan to deploy all the forces they had held back
- Were they waiting just for this!
- Connection breaking
Because the place where the Orthodox Faction rankers set their matching was not Shaanxi, contrary to expectations.
Not Shaanxi, but its west.
Gansu, which the Demon Cult had occupied the day before.
Instead of defending Shaanxi, the Orthodox Faction's scheme was to occupy Gansu conversely and isolate Shaanxi, which would become the Demon Cult's region the next day.