Matan’s Shooter

“… What happened to the Red Goat paleos?”

“The new players arriving in the New Continent now can’t even get close to them. They try to kill them on sight.”

The paleos’ affinity toward all players will continue to decrease. This is a problem not between individual versus individual, but between group versus group. Thus, play in the New Continent can no longer count on cooperation from the paleos. For Leeha, who had benefitted greatly from the paleos until now, this was a dire conclusion.

“In the end, does each person here have to stop the knights wandering around in pursuit of the ‘Subjugation’ achievement… How do we do this?”

Having the entire Sacred Knights Order wandering around isn’t really an option. Nor is having a swarm of star grass easy.

As everyone was sighing, Bobae suddenly looked up excitedly.

“What if I caught them?”

“Huh? Caught them how?”

“Hide somewhere near the paleos’ village and when the paleos attack, I could go ‘whoosh’ with my arrows!”

“Ah, no! Listen, Kijung-ssi. I can handle a few invisible arrows! If I shoot whenever the cooldown is up, maybe we could assassinate the key figures in the Knights Order?”

“But if you get caught, it would create real chaos. If we, the star grass and dogs– And we never had a guild war with the Knights Order before, it might be fun.”

Excited Bobae offered an idea, but Kijung received it with indifference.

In reality, it was a high-risk idea that offered little reward. Missing a one-shot kill could reveal Bobae’s name to the target. The moment Bobae is identified, star grass would be subjected to all sorts of accusations and attacks from the Knights Order.

“I don’t doubt Bobae-ssi’s skills, but… I agree with Mr. Kay’s assessment. Surely you have a stealth skill, but the moment you attack, you’ll be revealed. It’s too dangerous.”

“See, Bobae! It’s not just me thinking this. Give it up, quick!”

As Tale spoke seriously, Bobae could no longer vehemently argue and relaxed her grip, stepping back.

In that moment of collective sighs, there was one who was seriously contemplating.

“That might not be such a bad idea?”

“Huh? What, Leeha?”

“Exactly. Just kill them all. Stop them from subjugating.”

“Wait, what are you saying? Doing that would cause chaos! Even if you don’t have a guild, if all the national orders of knights mark you for death! Do you have any idea how devastating it would be if they declared war on the Gaza City, destroying your city in the process?”

As Leeha lifted Black Bass, Kijung hurriedly covered him with a cloak, as if afraid someone would see, though Leeha showed no sign of discomfort.

“Ha… What kind of nonsense is going through your head now?”

“It’s still just a thought.”

“But Ha Leeha, you know your own weakness better than anyo-“

“Enough. I’ll tell you the rest later. Kijung! I need to go.”

Leeha suddenly stood up.

Remembering something meant it was crucial to act immediately. Leeha was well aware that this was now a battle against time. Whoosh…!

In an instant, Leeha’s body vanished. While Leeha, the Sacred Knights, and Byulcho were in the middle of their discussion, black Crane paleo was being subdued, and the Red Goat paleo was also being overpowered by another knight order. No matter how much it’s tried to be concealed, daytime words are heard by birds and nighttime words by mice. Not just in Minis but also in knight orders from other countries, rumors about the achievement of subjugation were gradually leaking.

If this distrust among each other continues, and all knight orders also start getting greedy for the subjugation achievement before it’s too late, then the alliance formed to protect the “Divine Staff” will utterly break down.

“If we could just finish a little faster…”

It took Leeha about four more days to wrap everything up for the plan.

Despite minimizing logouts and preparations, it was impossible to shorten the time further.

The silver lining, fortunately, was being able to block the movements of the “Virtuous Knight Order” within those four days. Lark was somewhat puzzled as his predictions did not pan out as easily as he thought.

“How are things?”

“It seems they’re all over the place chasing subjugations. Already more than five knight orders have finished with the Black Crane.”

“Hmm, they surely can’t be unaware of the situation.”

Lark crossed his arms and looked out at the distant crowd. There was no noticeable movement between the members of the Sacred Knights and Byulcho.

“They must know. Maybe in Ms. Shin’s perspective, it’s just about holding us back?”

“No, that can’t be right. Just combining the words of Dame Shin, it’s easy to understand. She’s somebody trying to prevent the situation where paleos grow a hatred towards users, to prevent collisions of civilizations against each other. So, she’d likely keep all knight orders in check, not just us. The affinity has already plummeted to -100%, right?”

“Right.”

The bittersweet news by the time Leeha finished preparations was that the paleo tribes near Red Wood had achieved a -100% affinity with all races of the old continent. This was the first stumbling block for users who entered the new continent hoping to raise affinity.

The village of the Red Goat paleo was piled high with the glowing corpses of new users. As the number of light corpses grew, so did questions and anger towards the paleos within various Middle Earth communities.

Leeha’s biggest concern, a full-blown conflict between civilizations, seemed imminent.

“But still, they don’t act… Do they have something else they’re relying on?”

“Now? Them? They’re probably just thinking of conquering other paleos once this area is settled, captain.”

“But, aren’t you overworking me, considering I’m the White Commander?”

“Because paying one White Commander is cheaper than managing ten other knight order members.”

Pung shrugged.

It meant that Lark, the White Commander of the “Virtuous Knight Order,” was in charge of information management during campaigns.

His animal instinct of rejection by Lark was also due to his outstanding abilities.

“When we get back, I’ll have to make sure to remove the cap on allowances. Damn, I’m the White Commander in charge of two hundred people, and I’m only paid enough for five members. This feels like I’m getting the short end of the stick.”

Lark grumbled as he stepped into the campsite, still not feeling worried as he observed the movements of the Sacred Knights and Byulcho. Amidst their complacency, a smile finally bloomed on Leeha’s face.

※ ※

“Ten minutes to entry, final check. If we do as those damned ones said, we won’t die, but don’t let your guard down.”

Rustle-.

A soft sound of parting grass was heard.

In the midst of enemy territory,

“Not a single knight here would foolishly shout ‘Understood!’ loudly.”

The knights of the Minis, known for their bravery and unmatched by any, were those of the “Castilla Knight Order” who had fervently participated in the frontlines during the war with Tueviel, and the 1447ers, all watched ahead with stern faces.

“Current time, 1840. Complete group movements by 1855 and commence actions at 1900. Standby at respective operational positions by 1930, then all enter at the signal flare at 1933. Remember, unlike the Red Goats, the Black Cranes have the ability to fly.”

Rustle-.

Once again, everyone nodded in unison.

Although the leader of the Castilla Knight Order dispatched to the new continent was not a user but rather 1480, they could not just sit idly by upon receiving the ‘news’ from the Virtuous Knight Order and others from Minis.

With pride in their valor, the Castilla Knight Order, driven by their competitive spirit, indeed sent the largest number of members among the knight orders dispatched to the new continent. Ironically, there were more moments filled with frustration for being late to achieve the “Subjugation” feat.

“The Virtuous Knight Order’s subjugation time is 3 hours; the Kantus lot claimed 2 hours and 30 minutes. What is Castilla’s goal?”

No conversation is allowed during the approach to the battlefield. The rule of the Castilla Knight Order, that even in death, one must not scream, tested the members at every moment. Had anyone answered ‘even faster than that!’ then, the Knight Commander’s sword would have flown towards them.

“Finish within 1 hour and 57 minutes. Enter with the signal flare of 1933, and move with the resolve that it ends at 2130,” the Knight Commander said after pulling out and checking a pocket watch. Although there’s no direct time alarm provided by the Middle Earth System, it’s not impossible to make a ‘watch’.

Being a finely made luxury item, it’s quite expensive but to any Knight Commander, such an amount was trivial.

“Commence group action. I wish you good fortune,” said the Knight Commander before turning around. The group actions assined back in Juma City were immediately enacted. They encircled the Black Crane paleo’s territory from a large circle, threw a mana net into the sky to prevent the Black Cranes from flying to high ground, and used flying magic scrolls to swiftly cut off the panicked Black Crane paleo’s wings.

There was a specific caution to not fully cut off the wings as it could lead to death. For the members of the Castilla Knight Order, this was actually a difficult command.

“But if those bastards from the Kantus Knight Order could do it, there’s no reason we can’t.”

“Matching the throwing point and timing of the mana net is the most crucial in this operation.”

“The elite members including the commander will take care of the Black Crane spirit beasts, so don’t worry.”

If it’s a close combat with ordinary paleos on the ground, it wasn’t something the Castilla Knight Order should fear. However, it was regrettable that many of the purely warrior-type players, who weren’t adept in magic, had to use high-quality items and scrolls for all kinds of actions. Since each group had its assined tasks, they briefly verified them, taking a moment to steady both their nervousness and excitement. Finally, the scheduled time arrived.

At 18:55, all groups had finished their individual briefings. At 19:00, the mission commenced. The groups positioned themselves around the Black Crane paleo village in eight directions, implementing stealth maneuvers. At 19:15, the position of the four groups was confirmed. Standby.

At 19:29, the position of all eight groups was confirmed. Standby. Not a single fool was found scrambling for buffs or scrolls belatedly. The members of the Castilla Knight Order, having prepared meticulously to ensure that not even the moonlight could reflect off their sword blades, straightened their backs finally.

At 19:33, Eventually, the red signal flare was shot. Without shouting a charge, crunch, crunch, crunch! The leader of the 8th group of the Castilla Knight Order, running rapidly through the bushes, suddenly looked back. The first thing to do along with the signal flare was to throw the mana net into the sky to block flight.

However, there was no mana net being scattered from behind him.

“What are you doing? The net- Huh?”

Turning back, the leader was momentarily perplexed. There was no sign of the person who was supposed to throw the mana net.

“Where did that bastard go? Come out, you bastard! The commander will-”

Thud.

“-How- What’s that noise?”

Thud.

“Uh, huh?”

The leader looked back again. Even if he had stopped, the other members who rushed out with him should have continued with the operation. However, only inexplicable sounds reached him intermittently, with no signs of the battle noises from the knight order members.

Instinctively, the leader sensed something was going terribly wrong.

“No, that’s not it. The nicknames of my team members are turning grey.”

One could see the names if they opened the party window. And now, many of those names had turned into light. Either they logged out or they were marked as dead. If it were the players, they might think it’s due to logging out or server instability causing a disconnection. But what did it mean for the names of the 1480 to turn into light?

“Dead!”

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