Episode 93
Seo-jun's eyes gleamed with interest at the unfolding situation, and he asked.
[HeavenlyDemon14: What happens if Gansu is taken?]
It's not that he didn't know, but there's no harm in confirming it for sure.
Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei.
Taking Hebei would end it, and the place attacked today was Shaanxi.
‘If things go on like this.’
By day 14, Shaanxi would become the Demon Sect’s territory, but if the Righteous Faction takes Gansu, Shaanxi would be cut off from the Demon Sect’s territory and isolated.
It would become an inland island surrounded by land.
So, what's the problem with that?
[Third Elder: Once tomorrow comes, other Demon Sect users won’t be able to support Shaanxi. Only those who attempted an attack on Shaanxi even once the day before can play on the Shaanxi side.]
The number of people who can defend isolated Shaanxi is limited to those who had attacked Shaanxi at least once the previous day.
Since the connection is severed, the conditions changed accordingly.
That doesn’t mean the users who attacked Shaanxi are stuck there, but it’s obvious that defending it will become very difficult.
[Third Elder: The Righteous Faction will desperately try to hold Shanxi, which directly borders Hebei, no matter how many rankers they have to put in. So we were planning an all-out assault tomorrow, but if the connection gets severed here, it’ll be tough to both defend Shaanxi and attack Shanxi.]
[Third Elder: But if we try to prevent the connection from being severed here, the Righteous Faction and the Evil Faction will catch on to our goal.]
[Third Elder: Still, as long as we defend Gansu today, the situation will be fine. The problem is.]
[Third Elder: It’s going to be tough. I regret sending that small force to poke the Evil Faction earlier. If I’d known, I would’ve just saved them.]
Right now, the Righteous Faction has the advantage in combat power.
The reason is that Seo-jun had already attacked.
The Demon Sect had already deployed fifteen people, including Tang So, while the Righteous Faction tried blocking with three, failed, and then saved those three players' remaining rounds.
‘Having high fame is poison in a situation like this.’
As a result, the Demon Sect overcommitted to Shaanxi, making it difficult to defend Gansu.
If the Righteous Faction had been trying to defend Shaanxi right now instead of attacking Gansu, their forces would have matched perfectly.
But the Righteous Faction exploited this point well.
[Third Elder: We might need to change our strategy.]
Change strategy, huh.
Seo-jun shifted his gaze from the private chat to the group chat.
-We need to decide quickly.
-Defending Gansu seems impossible. If we go there, they’ll just bring in even more people.
-Even if we’re outnumbered, we can just win more fights!
-That might only be possible if HeavenlyDemon alone had about 60 people.
-Should we pivot to taking out the Evil Faction first? What are the chances of successfully attacking a region like Shaanxi that’s now Evil Faction territory?
-How about we form a suicide squad instead?
-That doesn’t seem feasible, right?
A suicide squad.
‘Does that mean all the remaining rankers attack Shaanxi once each and then just push through to the end?’
Reading the ongoing conversation, that seemed to be the case.
-The reason it’s impossible. We need some support from regular users too. If we get surrounded, that won’t work.
-And in an all-out battle, it’s not just regular users—even the rankers alone would be outmatched. Some people already used up their four matches today.
-Holding out there to buy time is pointless too. The overall time limit on the battlefield is tight.
In the end, if they can’t capture the headquarters, it’s all for nothing.
But if they change their strategy now, unlike the other factions that secured advantageous positions by gradually seizing key regions...
The Demon Sect had invested entirely in this one strategy, already giving away good regions and taking poor ones, so they’d be starting off at a slight disadvantage.
Pivoting to the Evil Faction seemed to have the most potential.
If they could succeed in an attack today and wrap things up within a few days, there was no need to stubbornly stick to the Righteous Faction.
The reason they’d hidden their goal of targeting a single faction’s headquarters as much as possible was to prevent the remaining faction from preparing while they focused on one.
‘Things change fast, huh.’
Now they had to make a decision.
As fast as possible.
‘I’m glad I just watched today.’
Thinking that, Seo-jun sent a message to Third Elder.
[HeavenlyDemon14: Instead, let’s leak our goal to the Evil Faction and use it to our advantage.]
[Third Elder: Huh?]
Third Elder initially reacted with a “What are you talking about?”, but after hearing Seo-jun’s detailed explanation, he showed a fairly favorable response.
[Third Elder: Hmm. This might actually be possible?]
[Third Elder: Wait a moment.]
After a brief pause, another message arrived.
[Third Elder: I told Manoeja, and he says let’s go for it. Let’s do this!]
Manoeja, not a manager, had this backstory of being a descendant of the Zhuge clan who was kicked out of the family and joined the Demon Sect.
That’s not important, though.
Manoeja was one of the key people, along with Third Elder, who shaped the big picture.
So.
[HeavenlyDemon14: Then contact the Evil Faction right away.]
His opinion had been adopted (?)!
* * *
Red markers appeared and vanished repeatedly across countless regions, but some regions persisted without disappearing.
The Righteous Faction territory Seo-jun captured the day before.
And the place where Righteous Faction rankers poured in today.
Currently, a large number of rankers were stationed in Gansu.
‘The Righteous Faction has about 40?’
Initially, the Righteous Faction committed around 10, but when the Demon Sect tried to defend, the Righteous Faction sent in more.
When the Demon Sect responded by adding more troops, the Righteous Faction deployed all their remaining forces there.
‘The Demon Sect is short by about 10.’
It was half-certain that Gansu would be taken by tomorrow, and so day 13 came to an end.
The next day.
Seo-jun prepared for his stream and turned on the community forum.
It had become a fairly natural routine by now.
Since his job involved feeding on attention, it was good to keep up with what was going on.
It was also just fun.
[Day 13 Battlefield Summary.]
[Guys, what happens when your retreat route is cut off?]
[Righteous Faction’s counterattack!]
[Since they couldn’t stop the Heavenly Demon lol, the Righteous Faction cut off supplies lololol]
[Fellow Demon Sect members, don’t worry. Today, HeavenlyDemon will handle everything. We just have to follow him.]
[But the Demon Sect finally showed their true colors.]
[The Righteous Faction probably breathed a sigh of relief.]
[The fact that HeavenlyDemon counts as 14 people was subtly a disadvantage.]
[Ah, if they’d streamed longer yesterday, we could have seen the streamer get flustered, damn.]
Even though he’d barely streamed yesterday and a whole day had passed, his name still popped up often.
Suddenly, the streamer’s words came to mind.
The users here are crazy about skilled players.
What gamer wouldn’t dislike a skilled player, but the atmosphere in “For the Xia” was a bit unique.
Thinking that, Seo-jun clicked on a post that caught his interest.
[But the Demon Sect finally showed their true colors.]
==
Look how desperately the Demon Sect tried to defend Gansu to keep the connection from being severed.
That means they were aiming for our headquarters lol
Heavenly Demon <-- This bastard was a sly one who pretended not to work with the Demon Sect while secretly following orders.
==
That’s a valid point.
The fact that the Demon Sect tried to defend Gansu with all their remaining forces this time meant maintaining the connection was that important, so anyone could easily infer they were aiming for headquarters.
Moreover, the person who created that path was Seo-jun, and since he had pretended not to cooperate much until now, calling him sly was just a poor choice of words but still accurate.
However.
Seo-jun smiled at the comment.
Are they all Demon Sect people?
-Ahem. It’s more like the Demon Sect is following HeavenlyDemon’s orders. And please correct that from “sly” to “smart.”
-You’re being rude to HeavenlyDemon. What is this bastard?
-The streamer just moved forward and cut down anyone in his way, and the Demon Sect built their strategy around that.
No, they aren’t.
Next, he clicked on the following post.
[The Righteous Faction probably breathed a sigh of relief.]
==
If they hadn’t cut us off yesterday, we would’ve had an all-out battle right in front of Hebei, where their headquarters are, today, right?
Even if you win, that’s a problem.
Because if the Righteous Faction and Demon Sect fight an all-out battle, the Evil Faction will slowly gobble up other regions.
Up until now, since the Demon Sect had been struggling, they probably didn’t feel it much, but this battlefield is a three-way fight anyway.
If two sides commit everything and fight, the remaining one wins as the fisherman in a three-way battle!
That’s why the Demon Sect are lunatics. What are they trying to gain by aiming for the enemy headquarters?
Do they have some kind of grudge against the Righteous Faction or something?
==
It was a post that grasped the situation well, and the first comment on this post was:
-Yeah
Those two letters seemed to contain a lot of meaning. Something like a mix of sorrow and pathos?
Now, it was about time to start the stream.
Seo-jun entered the capsule.
The world flipped as he closed and opened his eyes.
He immediately went to his personal channel and fiddled with the streaming settings.
The stream title.
[Winner is the Demon Sect Anyway]
At this point where they’d taken a hit, some people probably wanted to see how he’d react, but he chose the same title as yesterday.
[Stream starts.]
* * *
“Oh. You’re isolated with me in Shaanxi and you’re so scared you want me to hug you? Thanks for the donation. You’re banned.”
-Pfft hahahaha
-That’s a cut for a 100,000-won hug request!
-These days a lot of people pay money just to get banned.
-Where are you trying to put your hands? lololol
-Someone preserve this in the controversy tab. Donation scam lololol
As always, he obviously wasn’t actually banning them.
They wouldn’t really preserve something like this in the controversy tab, right?
[‘Hey’ has donated 10,000 won!]
[What are you gonna do today?]
Finally, the donation he’d been waiting for came up.
A question about what he planned to do from now on.
The reason he’d been waiting for this question was simple.
‘Because of the regular users who can play in Shaanxi.’
Regular users were uncontrollable variables, so they were treated as constants since they couldn’t be factored into calculations.
But if they united well, they could become a significant force.
Though it came with the condition that you had to be able to utilize them in the constantly changing regional situation.
This wasn’t about popularity or communication. It was a matter of command.
But if the goal was simple enough that no commanding was needed?
That was exactly the first play.
“Hmm, it seems like you’re curious about what I’ll do—are you a spy by any chance?”
Seo-jun started off like that.
-A spy? Catch them!
-Lol, definitely a Righteous Faction member who came to teabag.
Teabagging.
Refers to taunting the opponent by crouching up and down next to them after winning, provoking anger.
Another word for it is bad manners.
[‘No’ has donated 10,000 won!]
[I’m following you in Shaanxi, and I want to do what you do, so I’m asking.]
The person who donated seemed indignant.
But Seo-jun knew. The person smiling behind that donation was actually Third Elder.
“Oh really? Why are you following me?”
Seo-jun asked, even though he already knew.
The viewers answered for him.
-Lolololol I’m following too.
-Because we want to do it together.
-The Demon Sect can’t resist.
[‘WithStreamer’ has donated 10,000 won!]
[Having participated in the attack together and getting trapped in Shaanxi is the greatest achievement of my 25-year life!]
Seo-jun checked the donor’s ID. This wasn’t Third Elder, but an ordinary viewer?
-For real lol
-For real lol
-For real lol
-Is this how soldiers felt following their lord into a death trap!!!!
“Really? I’m going to take it a bit slow today, so wait for me if that’s the case.”
Chat messages saying “Got it” came from the Demon Sect users.
The Righteous Faction users asked him if he was scared.
After a bit of back-and-forth banter and a few more reassurances from Seo-jun, the time came.
“It’s 7 o’clock. Let’s check the results first.”
The results of the previous day’s battles began reflecting on the map.
Gansu was taken by the Righteous Faction. No surprises.
However, because the Demon Sect’s resistance had been fierce, the Righteous Faction also expended a lot of forces, and the Evil Faction’s green territory expanded as they took other regions in the meantime.
Small miniatures representing each faction rose above the regions and fought.
After the battle results appeared, the regions were dyed in the color of the victorious faction.
“The Evil Faction had a pretty balanced spread of gains.”
This was why all-out wars between two sides were a bad idea.
Yesterday’s fight between the Demon Sect and Righteous Section could almost be called a full-scale war, and only the Evil Faction reaped all the benefits.
“Oh? This time the Righteous Faction is moving quickly.”
And so, red markers immediately appeared on the newly arranged map.
On Shaanxi, where he was.
It couldn’t be the Demon Sect, so it was definitely the Righteous Faction.
But then.
[Achillesgun]
[RighteousPath]
[7777]
[RamyeonIsDelicious]
.
.
.
Surprisingly, there were 14 of them.
Seo-jun narrowed his eyes.
Their intention was clear.
“Looks like they really want to take back Shaanxi.”
The reason they deployed this many, and exactly the same number as him, in one go.
Probably meant: We’ll tie up this much of our forces here, so don’t bother trying to hold Shaanxi and go get your gains elsewhere.
It felt like they were saying, “It’s impossible to defend anyway, right? You’re not actually stuck here with no choice.”
In other words.
“It’s a bit of a concession, but also a provocation.”
A provocation telling him to be satisfied and get out of Shaanxi.
Seo-jun laughed.
He didn’t know who came up with it.
‘They’ll probably regret it.’
-Streamer, these guys are being cocky, shall we go crush them?
-Just give the order, hyung-nim! We’ll defend it!
-Is this them saying they’ll definitely take it? Are they ignoring us regular users?
-Well... aren’t we worth ignoring?
-That’s true.
-Let’s just leave Shaanxi, okay?
He hadn’t expected them to come out like this from the start.
“Let’s take it easy, everyone. The first move is usually made by the weak.”
Seo-jun didn’t take any action.
He leisurely ignored even the chat messages asking why he had always struck first at 7 o’clock until now.