I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 520

Dancing With The Devil (5)

Tap. Tap. The sound of heels stopped, and emerging from the shadows was… A Jiangshi [a Chinese hopping vampire] with blue skin, wearing a tight-fitting oriental dress that revealed her voluptuous figure. The Jiangshi looked at Black Night and gave a bitter smile. 《That’s…》 Black Night, staring at the Jiangshi with eyes filled with shock and fear, muttered in a trembling voice. 《…Me?》 It felt like watching herself step out of a mirror. Frozen in shock, Black Night cried out desperately. 《What is this? Who are you! I’ll kill you right now…》 As she shouted, Black Night tried to use magic, but no mana gathered at all. Black Night looked at her own body in confusion and… finally realized why she had been unable to move a moment ago. 《…Huh?》 Because she didn’t have a ‘body’ right now. She was just a skull-shaped data displayed on a small magic panel screen. 《Huh? No… Huh? This is…》 “Right.” Ash, looking at her with a pitiful gaze, brought a glass to his lips. “The two of you, Black Night and Ssoya, who were copied from Black Night. I switched your Jiangshi bodies and cybernetic bodies.” 《…?!》 “You’ve been copying and pasting your mind into various bodies, right? It turns out it’s possible to switch them too.” Ash’s lips curved into a cruel smile. “Why? You were jealous of another you, weren’t you? You envied the other you who occupied the cyber world, which you considered the culmination of your research. So I switched you. You should be grateful, shouldn’t you?” 《This is, no… This doesn’t make sense…》 Black Night, trembling on the screen, turned her gaze away. And she glared at the other version of herself, Ssoya, who had switched bodies with her. Now everything made sense. The reason she had fallen for the shallow magic tricks today was because the other version of herself had been using interference tactics. From the principles of talisman magic to the secret art of transferring the mind to a new body. All of it was leaked to the human side by the other version of herself. 《Why… another me?》 Black Night, unable to understand, vented her frustration. 《You succeeded… You obtained the ideal eternal life we were pursuing!》 《…》 《But why? Why did you do this, even giving up that eternal life?》 After a moment of silence. Ssoya, who had been silent for a while, slowly opened the Jiangshi’s mouth and spoke. 《…I thought that the final destination as a lich, to escape the finite cycle of life, was the cyber world.》 《But why!》 《But when I actually got there, I realized. It was not a space that could ever be infinite or eternal.》 《…!》 She thought that by converting herself into data, she could gain eternal life in the cyber world. But it wasn’t. It was just another form of refuge built within the physical space of the Magic Tower. A world that would disappear like a phantom if the Magic Tower ever collapsed and the system went down. 《In the end, only the form changed, and I realized that this life would eventually wear out and disappear…》 A lich is a magician who tries to escape from death. From a frail human body to an undead skeleton, to a Jiangshi, and then to data in the cyber world… She kept moving her body, but there was no eternity anywhere. Only a continuation of a miserable life. True eternal life was not in such a place. 《Then Ash proposed to me. He asked if I would cooperate in setting up this trap to kill you.》 Ssoya glanced at Ash and slowly nodded. 《If I could set a trap to kill you for sure… if I could become the only one again, I thought giving up the cyber world was a worthwhile exchange.》 Whether it was data or a Jiangshi, both were finite. To return to being the only one, Ssoya, who was a cyber lich in the cyber world, willingly gave up her domain. As a result, they exchanged bodies, and Black Night was trapped inside a small, narrow machine. 《I will now research new eternal life with this Jiangshi body.》 Ssoya whispered, looking at the other version of herself with a hint of pity. 《You will be trapped in that completely closed world… and slowly perish. Another me.》 《No, no, no…!》 Black Night struggled, but the machine she was trapped in was not connected to anything outside. If it had been a system built inside the Magic Tower, she could have freely used the mountain of powers she had given to the Magic Tower. But the Magic Tower had already collapsed, and there wasn’t even a proper mana-sensing device installed in this machine. Only her consciousness remained, unable to do anything. 《Noooooooo!》 Ash slowly picked up the machine containing Black Night, who was letting out a miserable scream as if scraping metal. “I hope you don’t hold any regrets, Black Night. You and I both tried to use and devour each other.” Ash said calmly, looking into the machine at Black Night. “It’s just that I, who have been through the mud and dirt, am a little better at these dirty tricks than you, who have only researched inside the Magic Tower your whole life. That’s all.” 《No, Ash! Please! No-》 “Don’t worry too much, brain in a jar.” Ash, smiling gently, slowly moved his finger towards the power button of the machine. “I’m not a mad scientist, but I might send you some electrical stimulation from time to time… wouldn’t I?” 《Wait! Please! Ash! Listen to me…》 Click- Ash’s finger pressed the power button, and the screen went dark. At the same time, darkness fell on the cyber world inside the small machine. Sinking into a completely dark world of nothingness… Black Night suddenly realized. The one she had danced with was not an ordinary human. He was a demon-like… the commander of the enemy forces. *** Click- The machine, like a tablet PC from Earth, turned off. “Hah.” I let out a short sigh and placed the machine on the table. Then, the Jiangshi, who slowly came and stood in front of me, opened her mouth. 《Thanks to you, I am now the only one.》 “…” 《I eliminated the other me, and the Lich Legion has also lost both its commander and the highest-ranking lich, so it can be considered virtually annihilated. You have perfectly fulfilled my request.》 The lich, Ssoya, who had newly taken over the Jiangshi’s body, spoke in a calm tone. 《Although I also lost the Magic Tower… well, the tower can be rebuilt.》 “…” 《Thank you, Ash. I will continue to cooperate with you in the future.》 Ssoya, still not fully adapted to her new body, bowed stiffly and turned around. 《The party is over, so I’ll be going now.》 “Wait a minute.” I called out to Ssoya. “What kind of eternal life will you pursue now that you’ve given up the cyber world?” 《…》 “You realized that no matter what kind of eternal life you pursue in this real world, you can’t achieve it, right?” Ssoya slowly stopped. I stared at her back and said quietly, with conviction. “You’re also aiming for ascension, aren’t you?” 《…》 “You made a contract, didn’t you? With the Outer Gods.” In the game, if you were hostile to Ssoya, this guy also used an instant-kill skill. She would summon a huge eye and kill the hero in one shot. In other words, this guy also made a contract with those eyeball candies called Outer Gods. “In the end, you’re going to betray us, destroy this world… and stand on the same side as those otherworldly eyes, aren’t you?” 《…》 “And you tried to eliminate the other you as a prerequisite for that. Isn’t that right?” When I read Black Night’s mind, I had already grasped all the necessary information. In the end, Ssoya also… was trying to kill each other to stand at the same level as those Outer Gods, to gain that qualification. “Black Night and Ssoya, you two are ultimately clones of the same individual, Black Night. Your way of thinking is bound to be the same.” 《…》 Without answering, Ssoya slowly reached out and pushed open the closed door of the private room. Then… Clank! Clank! Clank! My heroes, who had been waiting outside the door, appeared. All of them were fully armed. Wearing armor and pointing their drawn weapons this way. As soon as the door opened, they all simultaneously pointed their blades at Ssoya’s neck. Dozens of blades touched her neck. 《…》 A chilling silence flowed. Clink- I finished the rest of my whiskey in the glass with ice and muttered coldly. “You might argue that you’re not. But from our perspective, we can’t afford to take any more risks.” 《…》 “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go alive, Ssoya.” 《…You’ve been calling me by a strange name since earlier.》 The voice of the lich archmage, letting out a short sigh, was filled with an evil aura. 《I am Black Night.》 Crash-! Explosive mana erupted from her body. My heroes had to step back, swallowing their groans. 《The magic emperor of this Lake Kingdom, the longest-lived archmage in the history of the continent. And, yes. As you said, the only one who will gain divinity and ascend to a constellation. Black Night.》 Whoosh! The mana emanating from her body caused a whirlwind throughout the banquet hall. Facing the swirling wind, I calmly put down my empty glass. Black Night, who had turned back around, was facing me. 《The eternal life obtained in this lower realm is meaningless. Look at the lives in cocoons, living like insects at the bottom of that lake. That’s not the eternal life I seek.》 “…” 《I will ascend to the heavens. I will stand at the same height as those otherworldly beings.》 “You’re admitting it openly.” 《To do that, I had to eliminate the other me, and you solved that problem for me.》 Behind her back, the darkness of another world began to gather like clouds. 《If you’re going to oppose me, I don’t need you either, Ash.》 And then, from within that gathered darkness, a huge eye- Whack! -failed to open. The otherworldly darkness that had been gathering suddenly scattered. The raging wind stopped, and the ominous air that had been rising also subsided. 《…?》 Black Night, not understanding the situation, muttered in a bewildered voice. 《What? Why? My mana…?》 “The body you’re using now is a Jiangshi’s… and you taught us how to make Jiangshi talismans, didn’t you?” I slowly stood up from my seat and casually put my hands in my pockets. “Before the switch, I reverse-engineered it once more and changed the specifications a bit. To limit the use of mana.” 《What is that…?! Don’t talk nonsense! It’s not something a modern human can do!》 “You shouldn’t underestimate modern humans, ancient monster.” This world is a magical civilization. Do you think the humans outside were just playing around while you were locked up in the Magic Tower researching alone? Even if it’s magic you’ve never seen before, if you know the formulas and language, you can reverse-engineer it and steal all the basic principles. ‘And we even have Junior.’ Junior is a genius who succeeded in copying and stealing the principles of the vampire king Selendion’s magic calculation just by seeing it once, and made it his ultimate skill. The Eastern magic system has different basic formulas, so all the magicians belonging to the front line, including Junior, had to be mobilized to reverse-engineer and reset it. But we did it anyway. ‘A magician is a tactical weapon comparable to a fighter jet.’ And a fighter jet, as powerful as it is, is also a precise, delicate, and fragile weapon. Weak defense and disastrously low fuel efficiency compared to other weapons of the same era. It’s powerful once it starts flying, but it can be easily knocked down before it starts flying. Magicians and fighter jets are very similar. So, if you put a defect in the fuel tank and prevent it from even starting to fly in the first place. What remains is just an expensive piece of scrap metal with paper-thin defense that can’t fly. “You’ve been neglecting your history studies, Black Night.” I gestured with my chin towards the foolish archmage, who was looking at me with a pale face. “If you bring in outside forces in a civil war, the ending is mostly the same.” They have to end their own fights with their own hands. If they can’t do that and ask for help from the outside. They will be eaten by the jackals from the outside who approach with smiling faces… “They get eaten.” The two magicians are the same. They brought in an outside force called ‘me’ to harm each other. They must have thought they could just use me and throw me away. But, they underestimated me too much. I took a step towards the enemy commander and declared coldly. “It’s time to pay the price, magician.”

I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]

I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]

Tyrant of the Tower Defense Game 디펜스 게임의 폭군이 되었다
Status: Completed Author: Native Language: Korean
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[English Translation] In the relentless pursuit of conquering an unbeatable tower defense game, a dedicated gamer finally achieves the impossible—only to awaken within the very world he just mastered. Now inhabiting the body of a noble exiled to a perilous border fortress, he faces relentless waves of monstrous adversaries. Armed with his gaming expertise and strategic prowess, he must rally heroes, fortify defenses, and navigate treacherous politics to protect his newfound reality. Dive into a thrilling saga where virtual tactics become real-world survival in "I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game."

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