“Ha, they’ve seriously built that one rampart really high.”

While looking at the battleground from afar, Ceilron slightly frowned as he grumbled.

“I made fun of the DarkRuna Guild because they had failed their attack, but to think that their line of defense would be this solid.”

Emily, who was next to him, agreed with his words.

“No kidding. Quite a lot of troops have been sacrificed, but they still have yet to properly break through the 1st rampart.”

At Emily’s words, Ceilron’s two eyes grew a little bigger.

“Wat? The 1st rampart? Then are you saying that there’s also a 2nd defensive wall?”

“What were you doing during the last Allied Forces meeting? It seems you were sleeping?”

“Huh?”

“I’m talking about when the DarkRuna Guild was briefing on the information of the siege warfare.”

“Oh! That, well… Since you would have listened intently, there wasn’t really a reason for me to listen carefully as well, no? Huhu.”

The two people, who were part of the executive team of the Titan Guild, were top-class rankers, and because of that, they were labeled as part of the main fighting power.

That’s why they were to join the battle after, when the 1st defensive wall completely collapsed.

However, just then, Shyakran, who was submerged in his thoughts while looking at the battleground without a word in front of them, slightly turned his head as he opened his mouth.

“Ceilron, Emily, start getting ready to move now.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Are we finally going to move?”

Shyakran nodded his head as he replied.

“It seems like the western wall is starting to break down, so we must immediately prepare to enter.”

The three people’s gazes turned towards the battleground.

At just a glance, it seemed like they were tied when it came to the progress of the war situation at the front line.

However, Shyakran thought that the moment the defensive wall collapsed, the story would become completely different.

‘We just look tied right now because of their tall and solid defensive wall, but the moment that one place opens up, their balance will crumble in an instant.’

If their balance was to crumble, a one-sided massacre will begin with that place as the starting point, and in that timing, they needed to enter the battleground even 1 second faster and wipe out their opponents.

This was because the users and NPCs of the enemy country killed on the battleground would give a tremendous amount of EXP and rewards.

“I hope it’s not too boring…”

At Ceilron’s words, Shyakran smirked as he scolded him.

“It is the fortress that defeated DarkRuna. And they definitely would have prepared much more than then.”

“That’s probably true, right?”

Emily also added in.

“They also have a four-digit number of troops. Since there will be an overflow of prey for today at least, it probably won’t be boring.”

Shyakran grinned as he began to move his feet.

“Huhu, then shall we head over?”

“Yes, Master.”

With Shyakran as the head, the troops of about one thousand that were gathered under the Titan Guild’s flag, began to move quickly.

Their aim was the west wall that was collapsing.

‘Will I be able to fight against that Summoner dude from back then again?’

A couple months ago, he had gone to the Prison of the Pascal Islands because of an empire quest.

And Shyakran recently found out that the Summoner user that he briefly competed with there was the same person as Ian.

‘Huhu, I’m already looking forward to how surprised he’ll be.’

As he was an opponent that was even with his clone, which only had half of his abilities, he didn’t think of him as an opponent that was a proper match against him from the beginning.

However, despite that, Ian strangely grabbed his interest.

‘I would like to grab him with my own hands…’

At the thought of showing Ian the overwhelming difference in their strength, he was already excited.

However, to find out how it would turn out, it was something to be watched.

* * *

As it was winter break, Korea University was incredibly quiet.

However, the department room of the VR department was incredibly noisy.

“Yo, Sucheol. You ordered the chicken a while ago, right?”

“Yes, hyung! It’s been about 20 minutes since I’ve ordered it, so it should arrive soon now.”

“Okay.”

“Mina, what are you doing, not turning on the projector quickly?”

“Dude, you turn it on then. Why are you making me do it and causing a fuss?”

Today was the day that the students of the VR department decided to meet up for the first time in a while during their break and hang out.

It was a little ironic that the place that they were hanging out at was the school, but there wasn’t a place that was as cozy as the department room.

And decisively, there was a separate reason as to why they chose to meet up at the school.

Tiiing-!

As Mina turned on the projector, a large white screen popped up on one of the walls of the department room.

“Which channel should I change it to?”

At Mina’s question, Sewon quickly replied.

“What do you mean which channel, of course you should change it to YTBC. I’m telling you, their video quality is the best.”

“That’s right, and the casters there present our guild the best, so I like them the most.”

“Understood, okay!”

The students that had gathered at the department room were all guild members of the Lotus Guild.

It was just that their levels were too low, so they were members that couldn’t participate in the siege warfare in the central continent.

Amongst them, Sewon was at a state where he was close to lv 130, but at Yoohyun’s jab that he thought he wouldn’t be much help, he had decided to comfortably watch instead.

The channel came on shortly after, and as the video began to be broadcasted, Mina wore a flustered expression.

“What the hell? It looks like it’s been quite a while since the battle started.”

Sucheol asked back with a puzzled expression.

“What? You’re right. No, the broadcast was scheduled to start at one o’clock, so why did it start already?”

“It must be because the empire army moved quicker than expected, I guess.”

Sucheol, who poured himself a glass of Sprite from the fridge in the corner of the department room and drank it, continued his words.

“Still, from the looks of it, the 1st defensive wall remains undiminished as of now. Since they’ll start full-out fighting now, so it’s alright. We just need to watch from now.”

As the video started, the six students huddled on the sofa before they realized and began to be immersed in the screen.

As all the lights were off and they were watching the video through the large projection that was shot on the whole wall, it felt as if they had come to a small movie theatre.

Bang- Ba-bang-!

• Ah, is the first defensive rampart finally breaking down there?

Along with the voice of the excited caster, the giant boulders were poured out towards the collapsing rampart.

Babang!

• It seems that’s the case, right? Now with that much space, it seems like it will be enough for the troops to enter.

• That’s right. If you look over there, you can see the combat unit charging in as if they had been waiting for it, right?

• That flag, I think it’s the flag of the Titan Guild. As expected, Shyakran, the Master of the Titan Guild is at the head.

Mina, who was watching the screen, asked Sewon.

“But Sewon oppa[1].”

“What?”

“Did they always break down the rampart itself like that in a siege warfare originally? I don’t think we did that when we had domain defending wars in the northern continent before, right?”

Sucheol, who was next to her, also added on.

“You’re right. That time we piled dirt or used something like a ladder to crawl up it.”

At the two people’s words, Sewon also wore a quizzical expression as he tilted his head.

“You’re right. As the rampart HP is ridiculously high, it would be incredibly inefficient to break it like that.”

And as if they had been waiting for their conversation, the casters solved their question.

• The 1st defensive wall has finally been broken through, but already close to two hours has passed, right?

• That’s right. The Defensive Power of the Pyro Domain’s resistance was a truly crazy level. They’re showing us a defensive war to the point the nickname, the Ansi City of the central continent, is not lacking.

• Why else would they have given up on climbing the rampart and chose to destroy it? There is the fault that the rampart is so high, but their defensive tactic is truly methodical. As rockslides are falling without rest and traps are set up all over the middle of the rampart, they had decided to just destroy it instead.

Sewon, who heard the explanation, mumbled with a low voice.

“Ah, I see. Ignorant dudes…”

Mina also opened her mouth as she added on.

“That’s really gross.”

“But Sewon hyung, if they choose to destroy the 2nd, even the 3rd defensive wall like that, wouldn’t the defensive institutions we put so much effort building all become useless?”

At Sucheol’s words, Sewon shook his head as he replied.

“No, that probably won’t be the case. For at least the 1st defensive wall, the catapults would be able to attack from a long range, but starting from the 2nddefensive wall, for it to be within the range of the catapults, they would have to get the catapults passed the 1st defensive wall.”

“I see.”

“The catapults will probably burn down from just one fire-type magic spell, so our guild members probably won’t just stand there watching them get that close, right?”

Mina nodded his head as she replied.

“You’re right.”

While they spoke, the angle of the camera, which was focused on the destroyed rampart, rapidly moved and began to show the inside of the fortress.

And at that spot, a full-scale battle had begun.

Just then, the voice tone of Mina, who had discovered something, went up slightly.

“Oppa, that’s Jinsung over there, right? There!”

At Mina’s words, everybody’s gazes gathered towards the direction that she pointed to, and in that spot, Ian, who was on Halli’s back, was fighting against the guild members of Titan.

“That’s right. It’s Jinsung.”

While the two people were glad to have discovered Ian, Sucheol tilted his head.

“But that Jinsung, when did he change his weapon again? He’s holding a spear.”

Clang- Cla-clang-!

The western area of the collapsed 1st defensive wall of the Pyro Domain.

As only one part of the rampart had crumbled, troops of a couple thousand units couldn’t enter at once, but still, quite a lot of troops entered the fortress.

‘Although it’s been broken down, if it’s a space this narrow, we need to block them off as long as we can.’

As soon as Ian received the report that the western area of the rampart was broken through, Ian moved quickly and moved to the western battleground.

And he also summoned all of the Familiars that he wasn’t able to summon because he had been shouldering the general commanding alone from on top of the rampart up until now.

“Paulean, Celia, you guys will also have to help me.”

“Understood, Lord.”

“Yes, Lord!”

Ian, who had even brought all of his retainers excluding Kaizar, began to fight the Kaimon Empire Army that entered through the collapsed rampart.

“Ly, just like you’ve always done, please focus on getting rid of Magicians, Archers and Priests.”

• Understood, Owner.

Ly was a Familiar that specialized in dealing explosive damage to single targets.

Because of that, he was also the Familiar whose abilities shone the most in a dogfight like this.

On the other hand, neither Lake or Pin could demonstrate their strength greatly in a dogfight like this.

This was because they could not use their AoE skills, which were their main attack abilities.

“Pin, Lake. You guys just fight and when the cooldown times for your Inherent Abilities are over, please go outside and use your AoE skills.”

Kku-ruk- Kku-ru-ruk-!

Ian, who had lastly put Bbakbbak and Celia in one team, got on Halli’s back.

“Alright, shall we try to block them as much as we can?”

Ian used all of his buff skills, but he didn’t use his ‘Will of the Selamus Warrior’ skill yet.

‘Until an opponent that’s hard to face appears, I should save the Will of the Selamus Warrior.’

Compared to the duration of the Will of the Selamus Warrior skill, the cooldown time was not that long.

Rather, it could be considered on the shorter side, so truthfully, the words that he would save it didn’t really fit.

It was because of the penalty that Ian wouldn’t be able to use any other skill while this skill lasted that he was trying to use it carefully.

And as Ian ran into the battle, many users charged towards Ian.

“It’s Ian!”

“It’s really Ian! If we catch that dude, the reward will probably be enormous, right?”

The reward received when catching a user from the enemy country was proportionate to the opponent’s level and Fame as well as the Specialty Points they possessed.

As that was the case, if someone succeeded in killing Ian, they would truly be able to obtain an enormous reward.

Since now Ian was in a situation where he had caught up to the level of the top-ranking group by 10 levels, and in the case of his Speciality Points and Fame, his were much higher than Ilahan or Shyakran.

While looking at the users of the Kaimon Empire that charged towards him, the corners of Ian’s mouth curled upwards.

‘Ha, what a waste of your levels, you idiots.’

Ian, who had faced a ton of users within virtual reality, could now get an estimate of his opponents’ strength just by roughly looking at their movement pattern.

And at the least, amongst the users that were after Ian, there was not one that looked like a proper heavyweight.

Ian began to spin the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ round and round.

“It hasn’t been long since I’ve been using a spear, but I don’t think I’ll lose to you guys.”

It was a clear provocation.

And at that provocation, the faces of the Kaimon Empire users turned bright red at once.

“Now that you’re a little famous, have you lost your mind?”

“Crazy, even in a situation like this, is performance important? It looks like he’s really going to be fighting against us with a spear.”

Traditionally, the greatest provocation for guys were the words that they were bad at games.

It could be considered to the point that it was at least ten times more effective than the words that they were ugly.

On top of that, a provocation that adds fuel to the flames of one’s opponent could be considered a better CC (Crowd Control, a skill used to restrict the movements of an opponent) than a status condition skill.

CC was inflicted on the character, but because a provocation that rattled the pride was inflicted on the player’s brain, it was something that couldn’t even be undone with a clearing skill.

Ian grinned as he threw in another word.

“Come at me all at once. Since we don’t have time, that is.”

[1] Oppa = what a younger female calls a related and/or close older male