I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 443

Damian’s magic bullet blew off the Red Spider Queen’s head.

Immediately, as if it were a lie, the spiders stopped moving.

All the red spiders in the area simultaneously ceased their movements. The kings, who had been clutching their heads and trembling, blinked in surprise at the sight of the spiders.

“D-Did they… stop?”

“What’s going on?”

“Could it be… over?”

Approaching the kings, I smiled brightly.

“Fortunately, before the situation could worsen, our sniper located and eliminated the enemy queen just now.”

“T-Then…?”

“Yes. The immediate defensive battle is over.”

I glanced down at the base of the fortress wall. The kings also hesitantly looked in that direction.

The corpses of the spiders were piled up, forming a hill. Even those still breathing had stopped moving and were standing still.

Looking at this bizarre scene, I added,

“Though new monsters will come again in a few weeks.”

“A-Again…? On this scale?”

“Yes. There have been times when even more than this came… Anyway, the situation is over for today. It’s our victory.”

Turning around, I shouted to the soldiers.

“All troops! You’ve all done well!”

Clack!

The soldiers all looked at me. I nodded firmly.

“The spider legion is the monster legion I first encountered when I came to this city. Back then, Crossroads had to lose as many as thousands of soldiers.”

The scene from the tutorial stage was still vivid in my mind.

That desperate and arduous battle, the allied soldiers dying…

I reached out and swept my gaze across the top of the fortress wall.

“But today, we have not suffered a single casualty.”

And the spider legion, which was so terrible and powerful back then, fell like autumn leaves today.

The red spiders ultimately failed to cross the fortress wall, and our soldiers did not suffer even minor injuries.

“You have become stronger!”

I shouted once more with emphasis.

“We have become stronger! I am proud of you, my warriors!”

We had definitely grown.

And we will grow even more in the future.

I smiled brightly and raised my fist.

“Let’s eat and drink comfortably today!”

Waaaaaah-!

The soldiers cheered in unison.

The top of the Crossroads fortress wall was filled with roars of victory. It was so loud that it was as deafening as the sound of cannons.

Turning away from the elated soldiers, I glanced at the kings and gave a slight smile.

“I’m glad our front line didn’t show a shameful sight to our guests.”

The kings were still in a daze.

They had directly witnessed the overwhelming monster forces, were attacked right in front of their eyes, and then saw it turned into a victory in an instant, with the soldiers cheering.

They must be out of their minds. They must have a lot to think about.

I pointed to the stairs leading down from the fortress wall.

“Now, let’s go down. Shouldn’t we continue the conversation we were having?”

***

After safely escorting the kings back to the hotel.

While watching the cleanup of the front lines, Lucas cautiously asked.

“…Wasn’t it possible to just have Damian snipe the spider queen from the beginning, without having to clash with the spiders?”

“That’s right.”

The queen’s location had been identified from the start. And Damian was on standby for sniping, waiting for my signal.

If you just take out the boss, they all stop moving, and that boss entity is a queen spider with weak combat power.

She is the type that commands from a safe and distant place, but this level of long-range sniping is nothing for Damian.

We could have finished the stage much more easily from the start. But.

“That wouldn’t have had any dramatic effect.”

It was necessary to show them.

To those who have lived safely in the distance and do not realize this great threat.

What kind of beings the monsters are.

How deep the hatred they hold for humans from the bottom of their souls is.

And what kind of battles the people of this monster front have fought, and will continue to fight.

‘If you want to put it simply, it was a show.’

But it was a necessary show.

At that moment, someone staggered towards me. I turned to her and smiled.

“Good work, Violet.”

“…I’ve finished everything you asked me to do.”

It was Violet, the illusionist and leader of the newly recruited gambler party, ‘Gamble Club’. Her lips were pouting, but she reported diligently.

“I deployed the illusionary field at the right time, showing the kings gathered here the illusion of red spiders rushing at them… Is that all right?”

“You did well. Everyone was completely fooled.”

That’s right.

The red spider legion’s attack was real, but the spiders that rushed towards the kings in the latter half of the battle were all illusions.

Our defense line is not so weak that we would let monsters attack VIPs. It was all an extension of the show I had planned and executed.

– These guys, they’re not monsters, they’re like water balloons! It’s so satisfying to take them down!

When Kuilan said that line, I felt a pang of guilt.

That’s because they weren’t real monsters, but illusions created by Violet… Of course, it was natural since I had directed it so that they would fall down every time we swung our fists.

“The threat of monsters is more impactful when you see it with your own eyes than when you hear about it.”

I stood in front of a red spider that had fallen dead on the fortress wall.

“It’s much more impactful to feel the threat of death directly, up close, than to see it from afar.”

The disgusting spider monster was half-open and dead.

I kicked the monster’s mouth once for no reason.

“But since I can’t actually put the VIPs’ heads between the monster’s jaws, I used a useful newcomer to give them an indirect experience like this.”

A little bit of exaggeration mixed with the truth.

If you mix it in this ratio, a situation where you can’t help but be fooled is created.

And since I made them realize the gravity of the monster threat to this extent—almost shaking them by the collar.

The kings will be able to see the situation more clearly. And it will be easier to talk to them in the future.

“Well, now that I’ve scared them enough… Shall we slowly start to win them over?”

In the current situation where I suddenly lashed out with a whip.

It was time to give the kings, who were out of their minds, a carrot.

***

That night.

While the soldiers were having a victory banquet, I had dinner with the guests.

I thought some of the kings might run away, but surprisingly, not a single one left their seat.

Whether it was because they were kings and had some guts, or because they would lose face if they ran away from here.

‘I don’t know which one it is, but it’s good.’

The banquet hall was quite splendid.

Even in this remote countryside, Serenade had shown off her skills, serving a course meal that was not inferior to that of the capital.

However, the kings’ gazes were focused on me, not the food. It’s delicious, so why don’t you eat while listening? It’s a bit awkward since I’m the only one cutting meat.

“The ones that attacked today are only a small part of the entire monster legion.”

After elegantly cutting the steak as I had learned in the capital, I put it in my mouth and chewed it roughly. As I did so, I continued to speak.

“And the monsters that attack each time are getting stronger and stronger. Both qualitatively and quantitatively.”

“Those monsters will come more, and in greater numbers…?”

“Ultimately, monster entities much more powerful than today’s spiders will come out in hundreds, thousands of times more.”

That was actually the case in the game as well.

By the latter half of the third year, the power of the monsters increases dramatically, and defense battles become impossible.

Before Crossroads can no longer hold out and is captured, we must attack their main base—the final dungeon inside the Lake Kingdom, the ‘Royal Castle’.

If we fail to capture the Royal Castle and the last day of the third year comes….

“It will be unmanageable.”

Literally, Crossroads will be captured by the flood of monsters pouring in. The monster front will collapse.

After that, well, it’s obvious without looking. If this front line, which is good at catching monsters, collapses, the upper world will not be safe either.

“Right now, we are managing to defend well with the troops here. But it will become increasingly difficult to handle. And if they finally break through this monster front….”

I looked around at the kings and shrugged.

“Well, you saw it for yourselves today, so you know what will happen.”

It is because it is a monster front that it can be defended.

If that monster front collapses.

If the monster forces surge like a wave from the south, other cities and countries will inevitably be destroyed.

“I need your help. To put it more bluntly, I need not just your help, but your full power.”

I slowly began to reveal the purpose of gathering these kings here.

“I want you to bring everything you have and fight together on this monster front. Because if you don’t, you and your people will all die.”

The kings’ faces turned pale.

The atmosphere was different from earlier in the day. When they had not actually faced the monsters, my words would have sounded like empty threats.

But today, they had witnessed the monsters firsthand. They were attacked right in front of their eyes.

They could easily imagine that threat being inflicted on their people.

“My goal is not a political struggle with Fernandes. It is to protect this world.”

There is a real threat.

“And the world must be protected by all the people of the world together. Therefore, you must also cooperate.”

There is a cause and justification.

So, what is needed last?

“And if you cooperate—if you join this monster front, I will gladly provide what each of you desires.”

That’s the carrot.

Even with such a huge threat right in front of them, people are ultimately moved by carrots. What can I do? If this is also the way of the world.

It was perhaps the topic they had been waiting for the most. The kings’ eyes gleamed.

I looked around at the four most necessary and powerful forces among the kings gathered here—the four kings of different races—and then uttered in a low voice.

“First, the abolition of discrimination against different races.”

“…!”

“I will abolish the century-long system of slavery of different races. I will remove the restrictions on living in autonomous districts and return your homelands.”

The biggest reason why the slavery of different races was introduced was to solidify the fact that humans were the victors of the war, and to systematically trample on different races.

And I had intended to eliminate this from the beginning.

Well, it’s not because I had a noble purpose, or because I lived in a democratic society, or anything like that.

This is the most effective card to bring these different races in.

Above all, in the face of monsters, distinctions such as race or status have no meaning.

“Monsters do not discriminate against people. They kill fairly. They don’t kill imperial citizens first, or different races later.”

The monsters’ goal is simple.

Kill people. Destroy the world.

Therefore, the goal of this monster front that opposes them is also simple.

Save people. Protect the world.

“There is no ideology in the struggle of the monster front. There is no nation, and there is no race. What exists here is only the simple purpose of saving the people behind the fortress wall.”

It is simple, therefore it is noble.

We fight only for life. Others who join this front must also follow the banner I have raised.

I wanted to make this clear.

“The monster front must not be divided by ideology, nation, or race and cause internal strife. What should take precedence on the monster front is only people.”

We all have only one life, and we cannot discriminate against the value of that life.

To prevent things like using different races as meat shields and only saving humans from the start.

And to allow the different races to participate without worry through this guarantee.

Above all, because monsters are powerful enemies that the whole world must fight shoulder to shoulder to win.

We must all stand on equal footing. So, I was going to restore their status to what it was a hundred years ago.

“What do you think?”

I asked, clasping my hands together.

“I think it’s a pretty good offer.”

It’s not just good.

How are you going to refuse this?