A Village Appeared on My Desktop

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Chapter 190 – Savior (10)

‘It’s a dream.’

She realized it in an instant. It wasn’t her first time experiencing a lucid dream. However, this time felt somehow different from her previous dreams.

A single ray of light in the darkness. She instinctively walked toward that light. It was almost amazing how her body moved on its own.

Yet, despite being fascinated, she didn’t stop her steps even after recognizing that this was a dream.

‘Where is this?’

She kept walking toward the light, but she felt no sense of getting closer. The wondrous feeling faded, and she began to feel anxious about why she wasn’t waking up.

It was too strange for a simple lucid dream. Her body wasn’t moving as she wished, her senses felt heightened, and her consciousness became clearer.

“…!”

While walking toward the light, Riena inadvertently looked around and widened her eyes.

Countless stars that shone brightly had appeared in the previously dark surroundings, resembling a deep night sky.

‘What on earth is this place?’

Upon closer inspection, it seemed odd for starry lights. There were rapidly moving lights and shining beams from enormous structures.

She gazed down at the brightly illuminated skyscrapers and the glimmering cityscape of cars, her mouth agape in wonder.

Despite her extensive experiences from adventures and the gaming world, she had never seen such scenery.

All that remained for her, now feeling dazed, was to find out the end of this dream. For just that purpose, she continued to walk this heavenly path.

“Please, answer me! Are you…?”

Finally, as she drew near the light that had been pulling her from the beginning, she unconsciously shouted toward it, now weaker than the surrounding cityscape.

Perhaps it was an instinct that this encounter wouldn’t be trivial. In reality, she could see a blurry silhouette within the light she was observing.

It was so blurry and distant that she could only discern that it resembled a human figure.

“What kind of dream is this?”

At that moment, she came to her senses with a blinding light.

She woke up in the holy site where the royal palace was located. Blinking in confusion, she stared at the ceiling and muttered blankly.

“You’re awake!”

“Shura.”

But before Riena could gather her wits, someone rushed into the room upon hearing her voice.

Seeing Shura in full armor, Riena finally realized why she was lying there.

“You’ve been unconscious for over three days.”

“What? Three days?”

Having burned everything on the battlefield, Riena was astonished to hear that she had been out for several days. Surprised, she shot up, but surprisingly, she felt perfectly fine.

“Nothing serious happened, right?”

“Yes, only good news.”

She asked, just in case, but Shura shook his head. Indeed, after she lost consciousness, all that followed was victory.

The Allied Forces steadily cleaned up the remnants of bugs, and with each encounter, the bugs hardly resisted and fell.

‘This isn’t a pointless dream. There must be some meaning to it.’

While Shura temporarily stepped away, Riena got out of bed and walked about. With each step, her joints cracked. The well-trained warrior’s body hadn’t rusted after just three days of lying down.

‘So, peace is really coming?’

Wearing a thin gown instead of armor, she looked out the window.

The royal palace where she was located was surprisingly a massive structure built with four stories. Constructed in a style and manner unseen anywhere on the grasslands or the continent, this palace was one of the symbols of the holy site, completed by transporters holding countless blocks.

With its colossal size and design that would astonish even the Emperor of the Empire, including the roof resembling one layered with tiles, it was a design that Junyoung had brought from an internet guide as a sample.

The city visible from the palace looked incredibly peaceful and leisurely, complemented by a clear sky and bright sunlight.

While the scenery itself wasn’t new to her, she felt the atmosphere was different because the threats of the world that threatened them had disappeared.

“Why don’t you take a bit more rest? After all, there’s still time to spare.”

“Since the chief is here, it seems you really have ample time on your hands.”

At that, Rakum approached her after hearing news from Shura. Riena smirked at him, who was dressed in casual attire just like she was.

It was a signal that, as Balun’s right-hand man, his relaxed appearance indicated everything was going well without danger.

“The king is still in the Land of the Elves, but once the elves send their delegation successfully to the Empire, he will return immediately.”

“I need to go there as well then.”

“Is that truly necessary?”

Seeing Riena, who was already thinking of working as soon as she woke up, Rakum chuckled. He, who fought alongside her, along with anyone on the battlefield, knew well.

Who fought the hardest and achieved the greatest deeds? Moreover, those achievements weren’t solely based on the final battle.

“You were already putting your all as a tribe warrior long before I joined. Even after I joined, you were always the strongest in the tribe, working tirelessly without a break. You were at the forefront of every battle.”

To Rakum, Riena was a workaholic. If it was the will of the Guardian Deity, perhaps it was inevitable for her to be consumed, but she had faced every trial given by the Guardian Deity and managed to clear the game.

“The king probably wishes for his daughter to take a breather from being a warrior and relax.”

“I’m not used to relaxing leisurely.”

Hearing his words, Riena’s eyes shook as she looked up at the sky. What mattered most to her was the will of the beings she trusted and followed.

When told to rest, she would rest, and when told to work, she would work.

However, it seemed the Guardian Deity she believed in was unable to pay her any mind at present, nor did it issue any commands.

Suddenly, a hint of anxiety arose within her heart, wondering if she had become too useless to seek her out, but Riena shook her head and tried to brush off that anxiety.

“I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to do.”

Muttering as she looked down at her hands, she faintly smiled. At such a young age, she lost her family and tribe, abandoning her hometown to settle here. Since then, her life had been a continuous struggle, swinging her sword.

In a position where she had to protect countless people against unknown enemies that could emerge at any moment, she had forgotten what it was like to live an ordinary life.

*

‘It will take at least a week for the elves to meet the Emperor, and they are managing the aftermath themselves.’

At the moment Riena woke up, I stood up from my seat after watching the screen.

Even though it wasn’t time to relax, I, too, felt at ease thanks to having crushed the bug swarm that could be called our main enemy.

Though a new swarm almost emerged, they naturally disappeared as they began a civil war among themselves, and truly, only a few bugs remained hidden on that side of the world.

Having achieved significant accomplishments and gained vast points, I concluded that I no longer had an immediate need to spend those points.

– A case for help has come in; what should we do?

During this spare time, I passed time by offering small assistance to other users. Whenever Lee So-Yeon would consult me about the stories of users who joined the company, I would draw from my extensive experiences and give advice based on what I had learned.

Of course, such advice was trivial, but it was not meaningless.

The information I provided through Lee So-Yeon was steadily accumulating and spreading, clearly helping increase the success rate of other users.

The ‘strategy guide’ that Lee So-Yeon and I created in the beginning was gradually expanding its accuracy and influence as it integrated the experiences and information of users worldwide.

“The area has once again been put under control. Citizens, please do not approach if a gate is discovered…”

The problem wasn’t us. Unlike what flowed from the news blaring in the living room, reality was worsening rather than improving. It was inevitable. I too had to make a decision before sweeping away the enemy swarm along with the residents; otherwise, their size would continue to grow, leading us only further down a bad path.

“Ugh, this is infuriating! Crazy humans, are they just going to tear each other apart in the midst of all this?”

“It’s the bugs’ ploy. The moment they notice we are divided, they will slip through the cracks for a profit.”

“Is it even rational to know that and still fall for it!?”

I agreed with my younger sister’s frustrated words as she watched the news.

The colony-type bugs, mocking us as we bombarded them with gunpowder weapons, were building nests deep underground while increasing their numbers, and at this very moment, they continued to grow stronger.

I thought I had proven enough, and I recommended to users that these bugs should be eradicated before their colonies exceeded a certain threshold.

Once they surpassed that threshold, we wouldn’t be able to keep up with their reproduction and evolution speed.

Lee So-Yeon was already preparing, and many others were in the process, so there would surely be continued success stories.

This was a future that was bound to happen; even if failure seemed inevitable, it was a task that had to be done.

‘Do the users watching over Earth know this?’

The problem lay with Earth. On this land, where someone unknown was playing my role, I wondered if they could unite and fight before the bugs grew any larger.

If the Earth user was unaware of this, they couldn’t just sit back and allow the growing bugs to overpower them.

“It’s a new variant. A new variant has emerged!”

“We have to stop it…! No way!”

Amidst all this, incidents continued to unfold. A video uploaded urgently by someone on the internet showed a variant bug that had sprung from a gate slaughtering soldiers who had gathered for defense.

Those bugs, with growth and evolution as their strengths, were gradually developing immunities to firearms. The moment soldiers lost control, hell would break loose.

“What are you doing? Where are you going?”

“Just stepping out in front of the house for a moment.”

I stuffed my cloak into my bag and headed out, making vague replies to my sister.

‘I can’t keep stepping out.’

For now, I thought it was urgent enough that I’d go and fight myself. However, I already knew this wasn’t the right course of action.

The reason I ultimately succeeded in wiping out the colony-type bugs was that the residents moved steadily according to my intentions and grew alongside me.

If these residents were the answer, refusing it meant that I would gradually entertain the thought that I might need to force them to comply.