NOVEL NEXT Chapter 153
The recent territory wars have been on fire.
Last time, I got so mad because of Gamha-View that I stormed into the [Evolution] faction alone. I got overwhelmed by the sheer number of players, and while I was defeated, those players started chatting among themselves, holding what seemed like a fan meeting. Word of that spread.
Territory wars are supposed to be about killing opponents and capturing specific zones, but for some reason, the number of Enchanters, who are debuffers, has increased.
In large-scale PVP, Enchanters aren’t very efficient. The reason is that Enchanters can’t spread debuffs over a wide area, so their effectiveness is limited.
But after the fan meeting rumor spread, the number of Enchanters noticeably increased, all aiming to capture me alive.
How did I know they were after me?
“Over there!”
“There’s the Princess!!!”
“Party A, press from the front and take out the Princess’s entourage! Party B, debuff the Princess! Party C, block any escape routes!”
At a glance, nearly a hundred players started swarming toward the territory I was responsible for.
Not long ago, the difference in numbers between the [Evolution] alliance and the [Munchkin Cat] alliance wasn’t that big.
But suddenly, the [Evolution] alliance gained a lot of members and started overwhelming us with sheer numbers during the territory wars.
I was stunned for a moment when I heard the commander of [Evolution] giving orders from a distance.
“What are they even saying now?”
Sunchoo, who was next to me, spoke up, and I nodded in agreement.
Normally, around 50 players would come to a single territory zone.
“Whoa… There are almost 100 players charging at us right now? Is this for real?”
Baedeokgae, who spends all day logged into Leore after the track and field competition, massaging her belly for 30 minutes every day, looked scared and pulled her head back, grimacing.
Of course, I had the same reaction.
The overwhelming numbers of the [Evolution] alliance made our allied overseas players, who were defending the territory with us, shout:
“Princess, run! We’ll buy you time!!!”
“Don’t worry about us! We’ll catch up!!!”
Wait, why are they suddenly dropping flag lines like this?
It feels like the players are treating this as reality, not a game. Well, it’s nice that they love Leore and the alliance war so much, but…
I came here to fight, you know.
Come to think of it, Gamha-View hasn’t been logging in lately. I need to kill him every time I see him.
He’s probably getting his soul drained by Anna.
“No. I’ll fight too.”
“Princess!!!”
There’s no reason to run, and this territory is a crucial location.
If this place falls, it’ll be hard to defend the two territories behind it.
Blocking this place automatically secures the path to defend the two territories behind it. If this falls, those two will automatically go to [Evolution], so we must hold it.
I’ve already requested reinforcements in our alliance chat after seeing their numbers, so we have to hold out here.
“Let’s hold the line. No retreat. Be prepared to die here if necessary.”
“For the Princess!!!”
The overseas players knelt like knights, shouting loudly and boosting morale.
Seeing this, the Korean players also got into it, over-immersing themselves. Sunchoo and Baedeokgae laughed at me, then subtly positioned themselves behind me like my aides. It was a bit dizzying.
Everyone’s taking this roleplay way too seriously.
===
*Boom!!! Crash! Bang!*
“Ahhh! Princess! We must protect the Princess! Ugh!”
“Darn it, there are too many of them! Isn’t this way too many?!!!”
Our side is definitely more skilled.
Since this territory is important, we’ve gathered skilled players, all of whom have been seen at least once in Leore’s logs.
But despite that, the [Evolution] players were just too numerous.
Even if one person can handle 2-3 opponents, the enemy outnumbers us by almost 5 to 1, so our healers can’t keep up with their damage.
No, forget keeping up—when 20-30 dealers focus their skills on one person, they just die instantly.
Healing or not, when they focus-fire one by one, we can’t hold out and just get swept away.
If this continues, we’ll definitely lose the territory. So, I drew my Tashim Sword and charged into the enemy lines.
“Princess!”
“Arang!”
They were startled by my sudden decision, but I had my reasons.
It’s because of the command their commander gave earlier.
They’re planning to capture me alive. Their goal isn’t to kill me but to subdue me.
Probably because the story of the 15-player fan meeting last time spread.
They’re planning to capture me and hold another fan meeting.
But that’s naive.
That complacency will let our [Munchkin Cat] alliance win this territory war.
Or so I thought, but less than 5 minutes later, I was running around like crazy.
“Why are there so many Enchanters in a territory war?!!”
No matter how good my physical skills are, I can’t dodge attacks like in The Matrix.
Wait, even in The Matrix, they stop and move their bodies to dodge bullets.
“The Princess is getting tired! Enchanters without mana, fall back! Tanks, make sure she can’t escape!”
Everyone tried to protect me, but the enemy predicted my charge and quickly positioned tanks between me and the [Munchkin Cat] alliance, blocking our retreat and reinforcements.
They came prepared. The commander gave crisp orders, and they moved in perfect unison.
“Arang, be careful!”
“Arang, hold on a little longer! I’m coming!”
Sunchoo and Baedeokgae shouted from afar, but I realized they were more serious than I thought. This was dangerous.
‘Are they really this serious…?’
I came here for war content, but suddenly it turned into a 1 vs 100 situation like in those old AV videos.
100 players are fighting to capture me for a fan meeting, I’m running away, and our alliance players are trying to protect me…
This is really 1 vs 100, huh?
I felt a chill run down my spine.
With the mindset that I absolutely can’t be caught, I tried to avoid the Enchanters’ debuffs and used the players trying to capture me as meat shields to buy time.
In this situation, it’s impossible for me to break through all those healers and kill players. Buying time is all I can do.
Thanks to Leore’s high-performance AI, physical contact like grabbing or hugging is restricted, so it’s manageable.
If they were just trying to kill me, I’d have been helpless, but their goal is to capture me.
And since this situation happened not long ago, I had data, so I started wreaking havoc against 100 players.
Well, technically, it’s 70 players blocking our alliance from helping me and 30 trying to capture me, but it’s effectively 100 players moving to capture me.
“Ha… Ha…”
I was dribbling past 30 players without issue, but then a problem arose.
It was harder than facing 15 players, but I managed to barely handle it. However, my stamina started running low.
At max level, stamina usually isn’t an issue, so I sometimes thought stamina was useless.
But after fighting so many for so long, I didn’t have enough stamina to parry, and my movements slowed down.
The slowdown got worse as my stamina depleted, and as I started taking debuffs, I was quickly subdued.
Three Enchanters dumped debuffs on me, tanks hindered my movements, and ranged dealers hit me with their crowd control skills. I was captured.
Well, “captured” is a strong word—they’re keeping a 2-meter distance from me.
“Um… Is it okay if I approach you?”
A female player, who seemed to be a high-ranking member of the alliance, cautiously approached me, immobilized by crowd control.
I nodded.
As I nodded in approval, the female player came closer.
The male players maintained their 2-meter distance, but the female player, who I thought was pretty despite my high beauty standards from being surrounded by beauties, whispered in my ear.
“Um, I don’t mean any harm, but… can I pick you up, Arang…?!”
I knew something weird was coming, but curious, I nodded again.
As soon as I agreed, the female player smiled brightly, slipped her hands under my armpits, lifted me up, and shouted:
“We won!!! We’re kidnapping Arang!!!”
The [Munchkin Cat] alliance players, seeing me captured, tried desperately to chase after me, but the remaining enemy players joined in, and our 15 players couldn’t handle nearly 100.
“Incompetent fools! We’re taking this cute Arang with us!”
As soon as she said that, our alliance players in the distance let out near-screams of despair, while the female player and [Evolution] players cheered in victory and started running away with me in tow.
Wait, aren’t you going to capture the territory?