I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 36

So many.

Too many, way too many.

Looking down at the wave of sewer rats surging towards the wall, I swallowed hard.

It felt like I was standing on a harbor, not a fortress wall.

And a harbor where a surging, turbulent storm was just beginning to rage.

Clack! Clatter!

The gray wave of monsters crashed against the wall, shattering and scattering like waves hitting a breakwater.

It was because of the concentrated fire pouring down from the wall.

“Fire!”

“Launch!”

The soldiers, drenched in sweat, kept shouting orders. Following that, cannonballs and arrows rained down.

Boom! Thud!

Thump! Thump!

The sewer rats were set ablaze by explosions and pierced by arrows.

When they were far away, they were small and fast, making them hard to hit.

But as they got closer to the wall, the accuracy of our cannonballs and arrows increased.

Not only that, but the barricades were also more densely placed around the wall.

In particular, the fragments of the spirit knight’s greatsword, which had been embedded in the wall, were playing a significant role.

I often saw sewer rats tripping over the metal fragments.

‘Not bad, not bad, but…’

I moistened my parched lips with my tongue.

‘The front line is being pushed back way too fast!’

The neutralization of the kill zone was too fast, and the sewer rats reaching the wall across the field was also much faster than anticipated.

I can chalk up the kill zone neutralization to an unexpected situation, but not properly calculating the running speed of four-legged beasts is my mistake. Damn it.

‘Still, the defense is going smoothly.’

I quickly scanned the wall.

Although the sewer rat monsters reached the wall in an instant, the soldiers were not panicking and were intercepting them one by one as they had been trained.

It was partly thanks to the experience gained from the previous stage, but also thanks to the large number of seasoned veterans who had joined.

“Get a grip, you rookies! Tighten your butts!”

“Don’t overdo it from the start! There are still hours left until it’s over! Go get some water!”

“Are you going to be discouraged just because you couldn’t hit a cannon? Just creating a fire net is enough to push the monsters back! Keep firing!”

They were playing a mentor role next to the young mercenaries.

Even without me giving detailed orders, they were effectively attacking the sewer rats on their own.

And what were our party members doing?

“Left defense line! The fire net is weak! What are you doing! Fire straight!”

Lukas was commanding the front line.

If I direct the overall direction of the front line, Lukas gives detailed orders that fit my instructions.

Even if I, who still don’t know much about the mercenary tactics of this world, give vague and clumsy commands, Lukas understands them perfectly and gives accurate orders. He’s capable, that protagonist.

Clang!

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Damien was sniping.

Slowly but surely, he was piercing the heads of the sewer rats approaching the wall.

Damien’s strength is long-range precision shooting, so in a battle like this, his almost cheat-like ability is somewhat diminished.

But just steadily racking up kills is meaningful. Keep it up.

“Gravity field artifact number 1 will be down in 3 minutes! Please prepare gravity field artifact number 2!”

Lily was in charge of managing the defensive artifacts on site.

Her voice was loud, and she was bustling around, as if she was trying to say, ‘I’m working hard.’

Sorry, Lily. No matter what, you have to go to the front line if needed…

It seemed like Lily was looking at me with a desperate gaze, but I deliberately ignored it and turned my eyes away.

Next, our main party’s last member, Jupiter, was…

“Oh my, everyone’s working so hard.”

“……”

He was lying down.

Stretched out on a makeshift cot inside the wall, with his legs fully extended.

I told him to rest and wait, but he’s really resting comfortably. Is this your living room?

“Aigo, aigogo! My back hurts from gathering mana! Aigooo!”

When I glared at him, Jupiter groaned and grabbed his back.

“……”

I silently ground my teeth. He’s a precious mage, so I can’t say anything… Ugh.

“Work properly later, Jupiter.”

“Of course!”

Jupiter, winking with his one eye, picked up a drink next to him and started sipping it through a straw. I hate this old woman…

Anyway, thanks to the efforts of everyone except Jupiter, the front line was being maintained well, even though it had been pushed back.

Thududududung!

In particular, the power of the automatic turrets was beyond words.

Although they had the disadvantage of consuming ammunition quickly and taking a long time to reload.

While they were active, they displayed absolute power. Sewer rats, which were low-level and weak, could be massacred in droves.

“Oh, you’re so pretty, oh!”

I affectionately stroked the automatic defense turret that had entered its third reload. Keep doing this in the future.

The corpses of the rats formed a small hill in front of the wall.

I nodded, looking down at the gruesome yet satisfying sight.

‘If we can maintain this, we can clear the stage without any problems!’

Is it finally possible to clear it without any accidents?

It was at that moment when I was having such a carefree thought.

“……?!”

In the corner of my vision, I saw something.

Startled, I turned my eyes in that direction.

A man dressed as a minstrel wearing a conical hat was standing there.

Far away on the southern horizon, without a doubt.

He was standing still, observing the wall of the front line where the sewer rats were rushing.

‘So, I wasn’t seeing things earlier?!’

I activated my [Map Creation] trait.

The traits I brought to this battle were [Attack Totem], [Defense Totem], and [Map Creation].

I brought the trait to accurately grasp the battlefield when it became chaotic, and I used it without hesitation now.

I had to find out the identity of that guy.

A wide, dot-shaped map appeared in front of my eyes. I looked at the map of the place where the conical-hatted minstrel was standing.

“!”

Normal monsters are marked with red diamonds. Boss monsters are marked with red skulls.

And that conical-hatted minstrel was marked with a red circle.

A circle is an NPC character.

Red means hostile!

“This is bullshit.”

A curse word slipped out of my mouth without me realizing it.

It was because I finally realized the identity of the opponent.

‘A hostile NPC intrusion? In stage 2?’

Various events occur during stage progression. Because all sorts of variables make the game more diverse.

Hostile NPC intrusion is one of them.

Whether it’s an NPC from the dungeon under the lake or another kingdom hostile to the empire, all sorts of guys interfere with the stage progression.

But this is only stage 2! It’s not the time for this kind of event to happen!

“Damien!”

There was no director next to me to complain about why the game design was like this. I urgently called Damien.

Damien, who was loading the next quiver into his crossbow, immediately came to my side. I pointed south with my hand.

“Do you see that man?!”

This time, Damien could see him too. Damien nodded.

“Yes. You mean that minstrel?”

“Shoot! Right now!”

“Huh?”

Damien, flustered, opened his mouth slightly.

“But, he looks like a person, not a monster…?”

“That’s not important right now! You have to shoot him!”

He was clearly an NPC from the Lake Kingdom.

And that outfit. That distinctive minstrel attire.

I finally realized the identity of the opponent. I knew him. I had met him several times while playing the game.

“You have to shoot him before he plays the ‘flute’!”

I grabbed Damien’s shoulder, who was hesitating and unable to shoot, and shouted.

“I told you to be my trigger, Damien!”

“……!”

“If you don’t want to see more people die, snipe that guy right now! Hurry!”

But, it was already too late.

In those few seconds that Damien hesitated. The minstrel had already put the flute to his lips…

Peeeeeep-

He played it.

Despite being a small flute, a sharp flute sound echoed throughout the entire area.

Squeak?!

Squeak, squeak?!

As soon as the flute sound rang out, the sewer rats’ movements stopped.

Thousands of sewer rats across the entire battlefield. All at once.

“Huh?”

“What’s going on?”

“The rats stopped? What happened?”

Our soldiers, sensing something was wrong, were also puzzled.

And the next moment,

Peeeeeeee-……!

A long flute sound echoed.

Squeak!

Squeak, squeak!

Immediately after, red glints flashed in the eyes of the sewer rats, and their four legs kicked off the ground.

Until now, they had been running haphazardly, just rushing towards the nearest wall.

Suddenly, they began to gather at one point on the wall.

“They’re gathering at one point!”

I shouted and stuck to the edge of the wall.

“Where?! Where are they aiming for!”

“Right next to the gate, the central part of the wall! That, that place is…!”

Lukas, his face pale, trailed off.

“It’s the part that was just repaired today…”

The cannons fired and the ballistae shot crossbow bolts at the rats that were rushing towards one place.

But, they couldn’t stop them all.

The change in the rats’ movements was too sudden, and the defense line’s response was not keeping up.

The soldiers quickly turned the cannons and the ballistae, but it was too late.

Eventually, the vanguard of the rats, having crossed the moat, reached the wall.

Thud!

“……?!”

I was puzzled by the faint vibration rising through my feet.

What is it?

What are they trying to do?

Thud!

The sewer rats didn’t climb the wall. Instead.

Thud!

They rammed their heads.

Thud!

They rammed their heads into the wall.

Into the wall that was just repaired this morning.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The rats were ramming their heads.

Until their skulls were shattered, they were hitting the stone wall with their bodies.

The rats at the front were hitting the wall with their heads until their heads burst, and then they collapsed, covered in blood.

The next rats, and the next rats…

“C, crazy…”

“What are they doing?”

The soldiers, dumbfounded by this bizarre sight, muttered blankly.

But I finally understood their intentions.

“These crazy bastards…”

The wall repairs were completed just a few hours ago.

Everyone did their best in the limited time, but the condition of the wall was inevitably incomplete.

Because they only focused on filling the damaged parts.

Inevitably, there were gaps.

And the sewer rats were digging into those gaps with their bodies.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

They ram their heads into the wall. They bend the steel plates with their claws. They chew the stones with their teeth.

They are digging into the wall.

In a way that only rats can do, not any other monster.

Crack-

The sound of the steel plate covering the wall cracking was eerie.

I gritted my teeth and glared at the southern horizon.

In the distance, I could see the conical-hatted minstrel – the Pied Piper – slowly taking the flute from his lips.

Maybe it was just my imagination.

But he seemed to be smiling.