I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 211

I explained what happened yesterday, and Damian became dejected upon hearing that he had gone berserk again.

It was the second time he had lost his mind and caused a ruckus. This situation couldn’t be overlooked any longer.

“So, for now, you’re confined.”

One of Damian’s arms was bound to the wall with a chain and handcuffs.

It seemed a bit harsh, but he did shoot at us while berserk. We had to play it safe.

Damian didn’t react much to his confinement, but he was startled by the next words.

“And the magic gun, Black Queen, is confiscated. I won’t be giving it back for a while.”

“What?”

“Priests, mages, and even alchemists came to examine you and the magic gun. They said the dark energy from the gun has already begun to erode your soul.”

I spoke sternly.

“They said to immediately cut off contact between you and the magic gun and never let you near it again. So, that’s what I intend to do.”

Damian pleaded with me, his face pale.

“Y-Your Highness! Please! I’ll stay here quietly, so can’t you please give me the gun?”

“What are you talking about? That gun is the reason this whole mess happened.”

Like I’d give it back. Who knows what you’ll do while spewing that black aura again.

“Ever since that black aura started coming from the gun, you haven’t been able to eat or sleep properly for the past few weeks, right? I heard it all from the temple people.”

“……”

“I’m taking it away for your own good. Just know that.”

“But, Your Highness, even though I had nightmares because of that magic gun and every day was painful…”

Damian hesitated before muttering.

“I could dream of Ban.”

“……”

“I got to see Ban’s face vividly, the face I thought I’d never see again. So, I…”

So, he couldn’t let go of the Black Queen, even while suffering.

I crossed my arms and sighed deeply.

“He must have been a really precious friend.”

To endure pain every night just to see his face in a nightmare.

“……”

Damian didn’t answer, instead, he tightly shut his mouth.

Silence fell. I quietly looked around Damian’s room.

It was a room with the temple’s typical bland design, with only a few pieces of furniture, a wardrobe, a desk… and a hamster cage.

He was talking about raising a hamster before, and he really is raising one. I went and stood in front of the hamster cage.

*Squeak, squeak.*

A tiny hamster peeked out from the pile of hay, its beady eyes staring at me. Is it my imagination, or does it look like its owner?

“What was its name again?”

“Podong…”

“It’s not as plump as its name suggests.”

“I think it’s because I couldn’t take care of it properly yesterday. It gets skinny even if I give it less food for just one day.”

Is that how hamsters are? I don’t know, I’ve never raised one.

“Make this Podong plump again, and Damian, you should recover your health too.”

I pointed at Damian’s pale face with my hand and slowly headed towards the door.

“You’re out for the season. Don’t participate in this defense battle, and rest here. We’ll talk about the magic gun after that.”

“… !”

Damian desperately tried to rush after me, but one of his arms was bound by the handcuffs.

Damian stumbled with the sound of the chain and quickly shouted.

“But, Your Highness! I need to be there!”

“……”

“You’ve never fought a defense battle without me since you were appointed here! You always need my sniping skills!”

“Damian.”

I opened the door and turned back with a blank expression.

“You said you’d be my trigger. And you said you would.”

“…Yes.”

“What I need is a gun that can aim and fire according to my will. But right now, you’ve become a dangerous gun that could fire at anything, anywhere.”

Damian closed his mouth and lowered his head. I stepped out of the room.

“I can’t put you on the front lines in that state. Recover your body first.”

“Your Highness…”

“That’s an order from the commander.”

I gave him a small smile for the last time.

“It’s a vacation for you. Get some rest.”

I left Damian, who was looking at me with a blank face, and closed the door.

*Thud!*

***

“We will establish a strategy to defend against the super-giant monster.”

The lord’s mansion. The reception room.

After summoning all the hero characters except Damian to the meeting, I spoke.

“The name of the monster that will attack in this defense battle is Jörmungandr. It’s a very large snake.”

This stage’s monster, legion, and boss.

A single-entity monster legion. Jörmungandr.

It’s one of the few monsters in this game with the ‘super-giant’ tag.

And as if to prove that the word ‘super-giant’ isn’t just for show, it’s incredibly huge and strong.

“This guy will honestly crawl from the lake to Crossroads, then break through the city walls, crush the city, and head north.”

The appearance of a super-giant single-entity monster, unprecedented in previous defense battles.

Even the heroes who were used to fighting giant monsters, and the newbies who still lacked experience, all swallowed hard, tense.

I made it clear here.

“I’ll say it in advance, killing this guy is close to impossible. Our goal is only to ‘repel’ it.”

It’s not for nothing that Jörmungandr’s alias is ‘the World Serpent’.

It’s an extremely mythical being. A being of a different class than other monsters.

Even in the game, the goal wasn’t to kill it, but to inflict a certain amount of damage to send it back. We’ll do the same this time.

“This snake has only one principle of action. To go north.”

*Thump!*

I continued the explanation, drawing on the whiteboard that Aider had brought.

“It will attack anything that blocks its path, but it’s basically not very aggressive. Compared to other monsters whose goal is the destruction of humanity, it’s quite docile.”

Then, Evangeline raised her hand. I gestured with my chin.

“Do you have a question, Evangeline?”

“Why is it trying to go north?”

“I don’t know either. Maybe it’s looking for a good restaurant up there.”

That’s a joke, and I’m guessing that its goal is to traverse the world.

To go around the world from south to north.

‘The problem is that one of its strolls destroys a continental civilization.’

Every village and city on this giant snake’s path is destroyed.

Even if other monsters pass through this southern front, there is a way to form a new front and block them above, but there is no answer for Jörmungandr.

It eats civilizations as it goes north, and its body gets bigger and bigger.

We have to stop it here.

If we can’t, the whole world will really be over.

Everyone’s faces became serious at my explanation.

Even Reina, the support unit leader who always acted lightheartedly, and Quillan of the penal unit, who was still showing his newbie side.

There is something to protect on this front.

That applies to all of them.

“Anyway, it’s not very aggressive. It’s more focused on going north than attacking humans. And its body is very large. What conclusion can we draw from these premises?”

Everyone just stared at me blankly without answering my question.

Well, it would be difficult to answer with just this fragmented information. I immediately gave the correct answer.

“The answer is, ‘It will stay still even if we climb on it and hit it’.”

Evangeline’s mouth dropped open at my words.

“W-Wait a minute. What are you talking about? Then…”

“Yes.”

*Smirk.*

I gave a wry smile.

“In this defense battle, all of us will not be on the city walls…”

I roughly erased the picture of the city walls on the whiteboard and drew a path to the black lake much further south.

“We’ll go south and wait at the entrance of the black lake. As soon as Jörmungandr sticks its head out of the lake, we’ll climb onto its body and start the attack.”

The heroes were all shocked, not expecting that the plan was to actually climb onto the snake’s body.

“… !”

“…?!”

In particular, Lily and Margherita, the cowardly duo, were hugging each other and letting out silent screams. They’re acting weak again.

“It usually takes three days to reach the Crossroads city walls from the black lake. We’ll be beating the crap out of this giant snake for three days on its body.”

I drew a rough sketch of Jörmungandr’s huge body on the whiteboard.

It looked like a long earthworm, but I guess it’s understandable.

“Its body is huge. As huge as it is, the nerve centers that control its body are distributed throughout its body.”

I pointed to three places on Jörmungandr’s body.

The head. The center of the body. And near the tail.

“We will attack and destroy the three most important centers. Then we can stop it.”

It’s a kind of part destruction gimmick [a game mechanic where specific parts of an enemy must be destroyed].

If these three part destructions are successful, Jörmungandr will return to its nest to recover from the damage.

If we fail? It will chew up the city walls, grind the city, and go straight up.

“So, this defense battle will proceed in a form close to melee combat.”

Directly landing on the giant snake’s body. We have to attack and destroy the protruding nerve centers. Naturally, it will be a melee battle.

This is also why it was possible to establish a strategy without Damian in this defense battle.

Long-range sniping ability is not so much required in this Jörmungandr repelling operation.

“There are 9 days until the next defense battle starts. In other words, there are 6 days left until Jörmungandr sticks its head out of the lake.”

Since we have to start the defense battle from the entrance of the lake, the time is more pressing than the existing defense battles, which are based on the time the monsters arrive at the city walls.

“During that time, we will create weapons that can damage its body, and at the same time, we will conduct training for all of you.”

I looked around at the heroes.

“This defense battle is completely different from the previous defense battles. Since we have to operate on the monster’s body for more than 3 days, there will be different threats than the previous giant monster battles.”

I nodded firmly to all the party members who were looking at me with trembling eyes.

“Be prepared.”

Following that, I announced the formation.

4 main party members without Damian. 5 support party members. 5 penal unit members.

A total of 14 people decided to land directly on Jörmungandr’s body and carry out this dangerous operation.

I wasn’t going to take ordinary soldiers. We have to spend 3 days on the body of a boss monster that emits evil energy.

It’s an operation that only hero-level characters can endure in the first place.

The main party, the elite, nodded with determined faces as always, and the support party and the penal unit also followed my orders with firm faces.

If Jörmungandr breaks through this southern front and heads north, the imperial capital is on that path.

From the support party’s point of view, it’s something they have to risk their lives to stop.

“My hometown is also on that path.”

Quillan clenched his fists tightly with a firm face.

“I will risk my life with you, Your Highness.”

The penal unit also seemed to have a reason to be serious. I gave a faint smile to the bandit king who was burning with fighting spirit.

“Lily, and Saintess!”

I called out to the two who were so scared and waiting to be called. I gestured to the two who were starting to hiccup.

“The two of you will remain in Crossroads as reserves.”

The two’s faces brightened up openly. But it’s not the time to be so happy.

“There is a possibility that the city itself will be swept away in this defense battle. Therefore, the evacuation of citizens will also be different.”

Even if the monsters of the past were to dig into the city, they would only try to kill humans, and they would hardly touch the facilities and buildings in the city.

Therefore, the evacuation so far was at most just temporarily moving the citizens to the north of the city.

But this time, the level of threat is different. There is a possibility that the entire city will be devastated.

If we don’t prepare anything, in the worst case, Jörmungandr could crush the entire city and the infrastructure could disappear, threatening the survival of all citizens.

“Lily, cooperate with all the members of the production workshop to build evacuation huts, water storage, and food warehouses. You can set them up in the empty plains northeast of the city.”

“Yes, I understand!”

“Saintess, I will assign you workers, so please build a temporary treatment facility in the northeast of the city as well. Please have enough beds and medicine.”

“As you command, Your Highness.”

I nodded heavily to the two who answered with serious faces.

“I hope your work is in vain.”

These two are preparing for the worst.

Of course, the best thing is to repel Jörmungandr before it reaches the city walls.

If it reaches the city walls, the attack is already over.

‘But I am the lord here.’

Even if the game ends, the attack fails, and the world is destroyed.

I have a duty to take responsibility for the people who survive after that. That’s why we have to prepare for the worst.

I want the two of them to work hard. But I also want it to be a complete waste of effort.

Reading my intentions, Lily and Margherita nodded once again.

The two were no longer the cowards they usually were, but had the faces of heroes of this front.