NOVEL NEXT Chapter 182
The emperor stared at the burning continent in shock.
But he shook his head to snap out of it.
“Snap out of it! The war is not over yet!!”
He had conquered the Kingdom of Ra, but the Yura Republic still remained. Ending the war here would render all the sacrifices meaningless.
Without wasting time, the emperor left only a minimal peacekeeping force and moved all his troops to the Yura Republic.
And then, unexpected events began to unfold.
<"We are not puppets!!! We need rest!!!!">
[Soldiers are demanding a break.]
<"I will no longer fight this senseless war!!!">
[Deserters are increasing.]
<"For the resurrection of the Kingdom of Ra!!!">
[Rebels are showing up in the Kingdom of Ra.]
A few of the Imperial Army units, exhausted from continuous battles without rest, halted their advance, demanding to take a break.
Furthermore, soldiers who deemed the war meaningless began deserting, and the surviving royal family of the Kingdom of Ra organized rebels that caused terror at home, making it impossible for peacekeeping forces to manage.
The situation was a complete mess.
“Oh no! Those traitorous scum!!”
With nothing going as planned, the emperor felt like his head was about to explode from frustration. Deep down, he wanted to wipe out everyone who failed to understand his intentions, but the emperor wasn’t that foolish. He knew that such actions would only exacerbate the chaos.
“Ugh… There’s no choice. I will have to take action myself.”
The emperor had been accepting his ministers’ opinions and delegating authority to the officials as if he was actually handling the state affairs in a game. He knew that doing so would be better for the country in the long term, even if they were less capable than him.
But the situation was too dire for that now.
He decided it was fastest and most effective to handle everything personally, and thus began micromanaging the internal and external affairs of the Empire.
“Deserters will be punished according to military law, and I will promise extra rewards to the soldiers who demanded a break. Meanwhile, I’ll deploy the 1st and 7th armies that listen to my commands to defend the front lines and form a unit for additional conscription to give the rest time to rest. And…”
The emperor began managing every detail, just like Zhuge Liang in the Three Kingdoms, personally overseeing even the lowest-ranked officials of the Empire. His head throbbed, but slowly, things began to turn around as he had envisioned.
He managed to succeed in defending against the invasion of the Yura Republic and began a counter-offensive.
With that momentum, they reclaimed the city of Kabal that the Ain tribe had rebelled from and crossed into the Yura Republic’s border.
Just then, another unexpected event occurred.
[The Golden Wolf Brakkar has attacked the Imperial Army.]
“What!? Brakkar showed up already!?”
The Golden Wolf, protector of the Yura Republic, had appeared along with its army.
The emperor had thought that Brakkar would appear after more than half of the conquest was completed, but due to the destruction of the Kingdom of Ra, Brakkar had seemingly viewed the presence of the Imperial Army as a sign of ruin and attacked from the beginning of the conflict.
“Ahhh!!!”
“It’s an earthquake!!!! Save me!!!!!”
The Imperial Army fell to the quakes caused by the Golden Wolf and its massive claws.
To stop this, they needed the aid of a divine beast, but Sirael was still refusing to help until the war was over.
In the end, there was no choice but to deploy all remaining magic armor knights and the chief sorcerers against Brakkar.
<"Die! Imperial dogs!!! The earthquake of mass extinction!!!!">
<"Aaaaah!!!!!!">
Brakkar, working in coordination with the Republic’s army, was even more powerful than the Fire Dragon Ragnix.
As the situation worsened, the Golden Wolf unleashed its most powerful magic and detonated alongside all the magic armor knights and chief sorcerers.
“The divine beast… would make such a choice…”
The emperor was horrified that a divine beast would choose self-destruction. He had never seen himself as a butcher. He aimed for peaceful governance after unifying the continent, thus strictly managing even war crimes.
But what was the use of such thoughts? To the people of the Yura Republic, the Imperial Army and the emperor were merely invaders and demons.
For the first time in his life, the emperor felt animosity towards invaders he didn’t even recognize.
“But… just a bit more effort is needed!!!”
They had suffered terrible losses, but this meant the main forces of the Yura Republic were wiped out. Compared to that, the Imperial Army still remained, and if they conquered the remaining lands of the Yura Republic, they could achieve continental unification.
Yet, to mock the emperor’s hopes, problems persisted.
[Two years have passed since the war began. The sentiment among the citizens of the Empire has reached its worst stage.]
[The Krea Cathedral is demanding a ceasefire. If denied, religious sentiment will decline.]
[The additional war tax has surpassed 4500%.]
[Deaths have started occurring in Zephia.]
[The Nova Family in the East has organized a counter-revolution protest.]
[The Imperial governor was assassinated in Hamont of the Kingdom of Ra.]
Problems beyond imagination began emerging across the continent.
Now only 30% more of the Yura Republic needed to be conquered… then they could achieve mainland unification, but so many issues had arisen, and while resolving them one by one, the emperor gradually occupied the Yura Republic.
Then…
[The emperor of the Zers Empire died from overwork.]
[Campaign failed.]
“What! I died!?”
The emperor finally checked the emperor unit that could be considered his avatar.
The emperor unit had led the entire continent for a year with only 2 hours of sleep per day. As a result, its HP had reached 0, causing it to die suddenly.
The emperor felt despair that, absurdly, his dream of continental unification had ended.
“But hey, this is just a game. I can do better next time!”
No matter how vivid it felt, it was just a game. Plus, it was his first time playing and he wasn’t accustomed to it, which was the reason for such disastrous results.
He vowed that he would not let this happen again and said,
“Interren!!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I will restart from the very beginning.”
“Yes, then I will start the Zers Empire campaign again from now.”
The emperor challenged continental unification once more.
*
After that, the emperor attempted dozens of times.
He also tried changing strategy by invading the Yura Republic first instead of the Kingdom of Ra.
He even went to the extent of producing 200 magic armor knights.
But even that didn’t change the situation much, and ultimately, the emperor died from overwork before unifying the continent.
To prevent his own overwork, he tried to do less, leading to rampant rebellions within the Empire, with some factions in the Imperial Army turning into warlords, revolting or declaring independence.
In the end, believing that continental unification would be difficult without the cooperation of the divine beast, the emperor decided to change his fundamental strategy.
Instead of invading, he would provoke a response from the divine beast.
He established an intelligence division and conducted covert operations on both countries.
Initially, there were many failures, but after about 10 attempts, he finally succeeded in planting spies in the leadership of both the Kingdom of Ra and the Yura Republic.
Using that, he fostered anti-Zers sentiment among the citizens of Ra and orchestrated an assassination that targeted the Yura Republic’s royal prince, framing the Zers Empire as the culprit.
Ultimately, tensions resulted in clashes at the border, leading to deaths among the Zers Imperial Army, which served as a pretext for declaring war.
However, he did not aim for extreme continental unification from the get-go.
To start, they only occupied border towns of the Imperial Army and negotiated peace treaties.
Since the events were a result of the Kingdom of Ra’s mistakes, no one could protest, and the emperor repeated these actions.
Inevitably, the Kingdom of Ra and the Yura Republic, which were being steadily deprived of land, could no longer tolerate it and launched a formal declaration of war, to which the emperor deliberately sacrificed some Imperial troops for justification.
It eventually led to the divine beast Sirael taking action and using both its power and that of the magic armor knights to help the emperor swiftly conquer the Kingdom of Ra and the Yura Republic.
Countless problems continued to arise thereafter, but he solved them by any means necessary.
And finally…
[You have successfully unified the continent.]
The emperor had succeeded in unifying the continent.
“Look at this! I have unified the continent! I am truly the emperor who unites the Three Kingdoms!!!”
“……………”
The emperor boasted to Interren about the unified continent.
He had every reason to be happy. After 68 retries since the game began, it had taken a staggering 35 real years to achieve.
However…
[Total fatalities: 50 million, Military deaths: 21 million, Civilian deaths: 30 million]
No matter how much he had minimized the damage with the help of the divine beast, it was still a world war.
Incredible losses occurred, and the entire nation was in a total war state, causing the economy to collapse.
Yet now, the continent could finally be one.
Everyone, all races, would come together to create a world free of war.
Yes… the emperor genuinely believed that.
[Rebellion has broken out in the northern Kingdom of Ra.]
“Rebellion now, of all times?”
He knew that rebellions would arise amid the special circumstances created by war. The emperor thought it was just chaos following unification and issued a light suppression order.
However…
[Rebellion has broken out in the southern Zers Empire.]
[Rebellion has broken out in the western Yura Republic.]
[Elves have started a rebellion.]
[Beastmen have started a rebellion.]
[An assassination attempt on the emperor has occurred.]
The rebellions did not cease even after the unification of the continent.
For ten years after the emperor unified the continent, the entire realm experienced constant rebellions similar to the war era, and the emperor continued to suppress them.
“This… cannot be! Why are there rebellions now? Why are they still fighting!!?”
In the end, the emperor faced failure to unify the nation and died of old age while continuing to suppress the rebellions.
As soon as the emperor died, the continent fell into chaos.
With the absolute ruler gone, the royal family members began fighting amongst themselves for power, leading to civil wars.
Taking advantage of this turmoil, royal family members from the Kingdom of Ra, along with republicans, elves, dwarves, and many others, declared war for their own reasons and justifications.
As a result, 16 small city-states and 5 nations consisting of humans, elves, dark elves, dwarves, and beastmen emerged, creating a fragmented continent.
The divine beasts, disappointed in humanity, departed, and the World Tree wilted, resulting in a near half reduction in the continent’s magical resources and a significant drop in food production.
As the demon gates that had been sealed by the World Tree slowly began to open, monster numbers skyrocketed, diminishing the habitable lands for humans.
Ten years after the emperor’s death, the continent was divided,
the wars only escalated,
and humanity fell deeper into despair.
“This cannot be! I definitely unified the continent!!!!”
Looking at the burning continent after his death, the emperor experienced the emotion of “despair” for the first time in his life.