A Village Appeared on My Desktop

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Chapter 176 – Borderline (6)

‘They’re fighting better than I expected, aren’t they? Even more so than when the king was alive.’

The elves fought valiantly enough that even the one watching from beyond the screen thought so. They had mobilized all their capabilities as a race, so it was only natural to show this level of achievement.

It had been so long since they had fought with all their might that even the elves themselves believed they had fought exceptionally well.

“They can’t even approach us. Wouldn’t it have been better if we had done this from the start?”

“You fool… Do you mean we should just give up all the towns and hole up in the city?”

In such a situation, Logan, one of the elven warriors, frowned at his junior’s foolish words. While they were indeed fighting well, it was limited to defending the city. To drive the enemies out of their land, they had to go outside the city and launch an attack first.

‘But if our strength, boosted by the World Tree’s power, is this much right now, we can quietly stockpile our power and retake the lands.’

Logan stealthily glanced behind him. He had scolded his junior, but in truth, Logan also trusted the elven fighting power he was witnessing.

The mission assigned to Logan and his fellow warriors was precisely to protect the World Tree. Although a bit removed from the fierce battlefield, guarding the World Tree in case of emergencies was a task reserved for the finest elves since ancient times.

“Is there any problem?”

“The World Tree is still intact. There’s no way its accumulated power is only this much. With the king’s death, the World Tree has surely been angered, and it will not look lightly upon those monsters.”

At Logan’s words, one of the priests managing the World Tree chuckled in reply.

They showed enough composure to laugh. As long as the World Tree was shedding its accumulated power and granting them blessings, there wouldn’t be too many enemies who could defeat the elves in this land.

“That’s a relief.”

“Just hold your ground. No matter how rampage the monsters get, it doesn’t matter as long as the World Tree is safe.”

The priest firmly believed in the power of the World Tree. Even if the king was dead, as long as the World Tree could use its power properly, the intruders would pose no problem.

In fact, the World Tree was surrounding itself and the city with a defense barrier using its power, granting a safeguard to the elves.

The bugs could not even breach the elven defense line before they could break through that barrier.

“If we have to step in, it means things are already dire.”

“Right. So that won’t happen. Don’t speak useless nonsense.”

Logan nodded at his junior warrior’s words, which were laced with humor. Though they stood their ground according to tradition and custom, the moment they needed to step in would indicate that the situation had deteriorated to the point where the World Tree might collapse.

“… Huh?”

“The city’s defense barrier is shaking!”

However, contrary to Logan’s effort to silence his junior, a variable began to emerge in the smoothly flowing battlefield.

The first abnormality occurred with the defense barrier the World Tree had cast around the city. The barrier, which had prevented enemy airborne units from infiltrating the city and blocking long-range bombardments, shattered the moment it flickered.

“What just happened?!”

“Stop them for now!”

The bugs attacked with renewed vigor as if they had been waiting for that very moment. The assaults from the airborne units to incapacitate the castle walls intensified from that moment forth.

The elven firepower was dispersed and damage increased due to the rapid assaults. No matter how flawless their arrows were, there were limits. Watching the brutal massacre unfold right before their eyes, their spirits began to break little by little.

“Those bastards…”

Logan couldn’t leave his spot meant to protect the World Tree and watched his kin fight, feeling restless.

Before his eyes, a bug that resembled a mosquito ambushed a mother defending her child, snatching the kid away in an instant from her arms.

For the bugs, be it race, gender, or age, exterminating was simply a matter of purpose, but seeing the child’s body fall to the ground, pierced mercilessly by the bug’s venom, enraged Logan deeply.

No elf could remain calm witnessing something like that. They were sentient beings possessing emotions.

‘Are they truly demons from hell?’

Logan recalled the old stories that had been passed down among the elves, tales of demons that their ancestors had fought away.

He knew well that it was just a myth, but observing the bugs, who were beyond the realm of ordinary life forms, showing an obsession and madness solely for killing, he could not help but draw parallels between those myths and the bugs.

“Then where is our hero? A hero like our ancestors!”

“Hold your position, Ren! We must protect the World Tree with a fortitude greater than anyone else!”

Logan held back his panicked junior. As his junior said, heroes appear in epics. They lead others to defeat enemies and bring peace.

But right now, Logan knew that holding his ground was the best option.

“It’s just a moment of shaking. The World Tree is still standing strong. If we fight well enough, we can push them back and restore the defense barrier!”

Logan pointed at the World Tree and desperately tried to rally his surrounding comrades. Just as he said, there was still hope.

As long as the World Tree was intact, they still had the strength to fight.

“Look! They are coming!”

The bugs were no fools. As the city plunged into chaos, the variants that had quietly observed began to move.

Taking advantage of the elves’ diverted attention, a small specialized unit rushed toward the World Tree, heading straight for the elves’ sanctuary.

“Draw your swords!”

Logan urgently commanded his warriors to engage with them. This was a top-tier enemy that had slaughtered the king and his guards. The kind of powerful foe that could only be defeated by risking one’s life.

Logan objectively assessed that he could not defeat this ‘Assassin’ with his current fighting strength.

“Who do you think you are, to step foot in this filthy place?”

But this was the elves’ sanctuary. The very place where the World Tree first took root and grew. It was also the spot where its power had the greatest effect.

The strong mana enveloping Logan was one of the advantages the elves could gain here.

In this moment, here, Logan was not inferior in power to the bug.

“Uwaaaaah!”

Confirming that, Logan roared and pushed forward, causing the bug to stagger back. He successfully parried all four of the creature’s wildly swinging swords.

“Did you think it would be that easy to knock out an opponent and take the land?”

Taking a breath, Logan sneered at the retreating bug. As though shocked by the outcome, the Assassin stood in a daze, unable to charge again.

‘The land?’

That was when the elves, fueled with morale, began to sense something. A faint but strange tremor that would be difficult to detect unless one was as sharp as they were in this tense moment.

Yet the tremor from the ground grew stronger, gradually approaching the sanctuary they occupied.

*

“What the hell is this?”

I couldn’t help but mutter stupidly. The sight I just witnessed was that shocking.

The elves certainly fought well using their own methods. Despite facing the bugs that had mutated, evolved, and multiplied over the years, they remained solidly clustered around the World Tree, showing that their power didn’t fade.

“–, —?”

“–!”

The problem was that the enemies knew this too, and the monstrous beings I was aware of were cunning enough to twist themselves and formulate strategies.

‘What am I seeing right now?’

My eyes, glued to the screen, trembled. If I were not watching from beyond the screen, the elves inside must have felt like they were on the verge of losing their eyesight.

It was so shocking that I felt like time had momentarily paused.

“The World Tree…”

I gaped at the World Tree.

Ever since I became embroiled with the elves, many had come under my command, and through observation and playing the game together, I had learned a great deal.

This was a race that only existed in fantasies on Earth. Some aspects were predictable, while others were completely unexpected.

The World Tree was a revered entity among the elves and a symbol to them. At the same time, it was their origin and their god.

Not merely a symbol, in times of emergency, the World Tree shared its power with the elves, acting as a true guardian.

Perhaps that massive tree was the strongest living being I had witnessed since connecting with that world.

“It’s breaking…”

Yet now, that World Tree was erupting as if to explode, scattering fragments everywhere.

The once vibrant leaves turned dry and withered within moments, and branches lost their strength and began to fall towards the ground.

The elves stared in shock, either frozen or collapsing down.

The root cause was likely the enormous larvae that had tunneled in and begun eating away at the core of the tree.

While they resembled maggots, it was evident that they were horrifying mutated monsters.

They had already planned this assault and commenced their attack.

“—!”

After thoroughly gnawing away from the inside and weakening the World Tree, the creatures revealed themselves and began to indiscriminately attack the nearby elves.

With their large, tough, and sharp mouths, bodies were torn to shreds in an instant. The elves that began to be slain looked like powerless insects. Who now was the insect, after all this?

Seeing that, I snapped back to my senses and hurriedly grabbed the mouse.

‘What should I do?’

The head, trying to regain lucidity, turned blank and came to a halt.

However, my hand instinctively moved instead of the dumb brain. First, I pulled out the elven troops I had trained up to the maximum and forced Barun to follow my commands, repeating right-clicks until he understood.

“—!”

Suddenly transitioning from idling to darting back and forth, Barun began barking orders to those around him, who were flustered and unable to act, starting on his twelfth lap.

Seeing the soldiers having prepared supplies hurriedly gearing up, it seemed my intent was conveyed correctly.

‘We need to save as many as we can.’

Now our objective had shifted. We needed to rescue as many elves as possible to fight alongside us and face the bugs that had almost completely recovered their strength.

However, even amidst the paladins rushing to the front, I had not yet brought Riena out of the game.

She was now on the brink of the last chapter. The final trial she would face with me, an opportunity for her to fully awaken and break through another wall.

My instincts screamed that I couldn’t let her go like this.

I saw a village pop up on my desktop.