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Chapter 462




“But where would we go? We’re so far from Arpen Kingdom.”[1]
“To the Desert. According to the rumors I heard, the Desert region is yet another place that falls within Weed’s sphere of influence.”
“Is that so? Could you tell me more details?”
“Ever since the Nodulle and Hilderun quests, the Desert region has achieved rapid growth thanks to Weed, and…*whisper whisper*… Also, it is said that the leaders of the Desert warriors are Weed’s acquaintances.”
“Is that so?”
Thus did the local lords decide to desert the Haven Empire.
They were now welcoming the Desert warriors, while intending to dispose of their property and flee if things went south.
– Territory Conquered!
Nedro Castle will be become part of the Desert region.
The residents are fearful due to the rumors about the vicious Desert warriors.
Public order +24
City development level -16
Religious influence -25
Culture -15
Economic strength -40
– Territory Conquered!
The city of Gosome will become part of the Desert region.As the Desert warriors are entering through the main gates, the citizens refrain from outdoor activities.
Even the children are too scared to cry, hiding themselves inside their homes.
Public order +31
City development level -21
Religious influence 30 [2]
Culture -19
Economic strength -44
Gosome is a metropolis of the Great Plains that has a population of 230 000. With the expansion of the Pallos Empire’s territory, each warrior’s strength, agility and stamina have increased by 7 as an achievement.
Geomchi5 and the trainees, who were on their quest for the establishment of the Pallos Empire, planted the flag in the castle.
“Wow, all these stats…”
“Are they any useful though?”
“Weed always said that everything comes down to stats eventually.”
“Well, if our youngest said so, then it must be right.”
Geomchi and Geomchi2 had such great faith in Weed; they would even give their treasured sword to him if he asked.
“Second[3] , thanks to our Little One I think I might finally get married if all goes well. I wouldn’t even know that such a world existed if it weren’t for him; I’m the kind of a guy who finds a remote controller for a TV too complicated.”
“I am the same as you, master.”
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our Little One could be the host for my wedding?”
“We should definitely give him that role, yes.”
If Weed hosted a wedding ceremony in reality, the broadcasting stations might be present to relay the live event.
If the wedding took place in Royal Road, it would be possible to have hundreds of thousands of people participating in the event in the Castle of the Earth.
“By the way, now that we have conquered this land, how are we going to rule it? The lords have surrendered, but we can’t leave our troops here.”
“It is true that there is not going to be much of a difference once we leave.”
“Then what’s the point of conquering?”
So, while having this conversation, Geomchi and Geomchi2 realized they needed to face a very important fact.
The characteristics of the Desert warriors dictated that they weren’t bound to the territory and borders.
With their troops moving around like the wind, there wasn’t much they could do even if the cities and the castles that had surrendered to them joined the Haven Empire again.
Of course, the lords of the Haven Empire were having this in mind when they decided to surrender so easily.
“I think I’m going to have a headache. Let’s ask Weed about it.”
“That is a good idea.”
They briefed Weed on the current situation in an in-game whisper and waited for a reply.
What effectively was an unsolvable conundrum to them took exactly 15 seconds for Weed to come up with an answer.
– Weed: You need to fight like Desert warriors.
“Like Desert warriors?”
– Weed: When I founded the Paklos Empire… ahem…You could say I was rather brutal, although it was because I travelled in time, of course.
“Yes, I saw it. You wiped out practically everyone.”
It was one incident during which Weed’s true character was almost uncovered, as it was broadcast.
As a player of Royal Road he is now admired as a wise king or a great adventurer, but in the days of the Magical Continent, he was an unmatched tyrant… except for the fact that his bullying was mainly directed towards the prestigious guilds of ill reputation. This was why he could maintain his popularity among the general public. He was the one who could fight against them on behalf of the little people.
– Weed: Raise your army. Recruit the soldiers from the surrendered region by force. You’ll need to get everyone you can, such as commoners with some sword skills or mercenaries.
“It’s nothing impossible, but we already have big troops.”
– Weed: Since the land where you have to fight is wide, the more you have the better. Think about it. Even as kids, we knew that 10 people is better than 5 when we pretended to be ally captains.
“That’s true. Hmm.”
– Weed: When the lords surrender, take their troops and keep raising yours. After you take the army of the first couple of regions, it will become difficult to defy you for the next ones.
“Because our troops are that much larger.”
– Weed: That’s right. Once you pass through the Great Plains, the Empire will actively try to stop you because that means the entire Central Continent might be in peril. From then you just have to ruthlessly plunder and collect war supplies, and keep on fighting while continuing to raise the troops.”
“Hmm…”
A great prospect revealed itself in Geomchi’s head.
The Haven Empire.
And the wild Desert warriors pillaging the Empire which boasted of such great power!
‘I guess that’s quite cool, right?’
That prospect was once a reality painted by Weed during his time as the Great King of the Desert, and as his exploits became famous by broadcast, many men dreamed of such deeds.
“Sounds fun.”
– Weed: Yes. Well, if we lose the fight then that’s the end for us, but what’s there to lose? Once a man has drawn out his sword-
“-he has to cut at least a radish.”
***
Weed did not intend to stop at just manipulating Geomchi and the disciples from behind the scenes when it came to fighting the Haven Empire.
‘I didn’t expect a war to break out… but still, I’m the one who attacked the Empire.’
And the war was not going to end so easily.
‘We have quite a good idea of the military strength of the Haven Empire and the Hermes Guild. Of course, there should be more hidden weapons like those Steel Knights…’
Weed thought he would have had several secret assets too if he had been the head of the Hermes Guild.
With overflowing amounts of money, an organization and information network that covered the whole Central Continent, it was only natural to secure military strength using everything they could, quests and whatnot.
It wouldn’t be overly strange if they too had some sealed power like the Embinyu Church.
‘So how many secret weapons would they have? Two? Three? That feels a bit too few. Maybe between eight and ten? They wouldn’t have had time to prepare that many after unifying the Central Continent. ’
Quests were often discovered by adventurers and excavators.
There were users with special professions and fame like Weed, but things like quests or sealed skills that can affect the whole continent were not very common.
‘Let’s say it’s five. They probably have prepared around that number. And the Steel Knights are one of them.’
A man of such quick wits. He would probably be able to correctly guess the number of chopstick pairs Lafaye had kept as spare after he got a delivery from a Chinese restaurant.
‘The number of Hermes Guild users… approximately 752 300, according to their guild website. And the Imperial Army has 3 000 000 people.’
From the point of view of someone who rules a Kingdom, it was a ridiculously large amount of troops.
Worse still, these numbers did not include the number of troops independently owned by their lords.
‘Thanks to Seoyoon’s sacrifice, the circumstances became more favorable. They need to station about half of their troops in fortresses or castles for local defense. The rest will be mobilized for the war.’
Weed was drawing a big picture in his head.
The Imperial Army with the strongest military force.
Even after the existence of things like the Order of the Steel Knights was revealed, it didn’t pique Weed’s interest much.
The Arpen Kingdom, the Southern Desert warriors, and the rebel forces. He was going to gather all of them in one team and hunt the lands of the Empire.
“Hard work is never wasted[4] . I was holding a grudge ever since they took over the whole Central Continent for themselves; and I bet there are others with the same grudge, too.”
***
The elite soldiers of the Haven Empire were gathering in the Hurfan and Litum regions.
40% of the Hurfan region was already conquered by the Northern users, and a landing operation was taking place in the Litum region.
“We arrived at Littum. Everyone get off the ship!”
“Woow…. so this is the Central Continent.”
“Look at those beach houses. They’re so pretty.”
“Now I get why everyone’s talking about the Central Continent”
Quite unlike the scene of landing operations in which there was a fierce battle engaged by both sides, the Northern users were disembarking from a large sailboat in a leisurely manner.
After the landing, they visited the city shops in the coast, enjoying shopping and taking a look at the goods.
The ships of the line and carracks stolen from the Haven Empire were also used to transport the Nothern users.
“We have a ship with great ride comfort! No rocking in the waves. Sail to Litum for just 7 gold!”
“We’re going to depart in 30 minutes. You can have dinner at the Central Continent’s harbor Radek!”
“Anyone fancying some fresh-caught sashimi, get on board! We have a captain with Intermediate 7 level fishing skill! He can catch just about anything that’s not a Kraken!”
Merchants and adventurers were making good profits through the transportation of the Nothern users.
In addition, they could raise a fortune by bringing food and other trading goods in large quantities and selling them.
Since the rebellious uprising, the Haven Empire was suffering losses in their mineral mining, crop yield, and even goods production.
Indeed, even though there wasn’t any shortage of daily necessities, the price of groceries and other basic products was raised by 30%.
Most of the cities in the Central Continent bought products from the Arpen Kingdom at an expensive price, and with the added benefits of specialty products it was a jackpot for many merchants.
To merchants chasing after profit, it was a good opportunity to create great wealth and business growth by selling the spare supplies of the Arpen Kingdom to the Haven Empire.
“So they are the Northern users…”
“Things got quite lively. It’s good to have more people here.”
The Central Continent’s users welcomed the new people.
When the Arpen Kingdom came into control, the taxes were reduced to less than a half of the original amount; in addition to the official tax rate, various surtaxes and public usage cost or trade taxes were decreased.
The profit would have been several times greater if it had been before the Empire reduced the tax rate, but even as in current state it was an enormous gain.
“Grass Porridge, Grass Porridge, Grass Porridge!”
The Central Continent’s users willingly joined in, chanting the words “Grass Porridge”.
“But what kind of porridge are we?”
“Well, I like Bamboo Shoots Porridge…”
“But it’s so hard to go through the procedure for joining. And it would be nice if we come up with something by ourselves.”
“There is said to be about 130 porridge groups in the Grass Porridge Cult. Would there be any new names we could take?”
“Um… How about Flower Porridge?”
“Flower Porridge?”
“Yes, small grasses and flowers blooming on the ground…It’s a nice harmony. Also, it’s beautiful.”
The beginning of the Flower Porridge Army founded by a few users of the Central Continent!
They put flowers in their hair in order to show their membership in the Flower Porridge group.
In a matter of just a few hours or a day, the size of the Flower Porridge army increased remarkably, and everyone in the Litum region was walking around with flowers in their hair.
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Having flower ornaments on their hair allowed the elves and fairies to display their sweet beauty, but the problem was that even tall barbarians and muscular warriors put flowers in their hair.
There was a small fishing village in the Litum region called Brundelheim. Seven novice users of level 70 from the Northern region came to this village, and by that evening the atmosphere of the whole place had changed completely. Now, each and every one of the approximately a thousand users of this village had flowers in their hair.
“So this is what it feels like to be in Grass Porridge Cult. To feel somehow connected as one to someone who’s completely different from me.”
“We aren’t alone. We all live together.”
(To be continued…)