Reno's Story

Roland looked at Reno and sighed. He actually felt Reno was quite pathetic. He carried everything on his own, yet he couldn't stop the empire's fall. In fact, he even accelerated its demise…

The Ring System was originally an open-world game. Within the game, any action taken by any player could potentially alter the world's main storyline. Reno's story also began here…

Back then, as an insignificant NPC, Reno, carrying a directive from the Lagrang Royal Guard Paladins, came to the Northern Territory to investigate the movements of Orcs, half-orcs, and other evil factions. At that time, being weak, he was discovered by player lords. Instantly, the lords' enthusiasm was ignited. A lone Lagrang Royal Guard Paladin! This meant they could increase favorability, it meant they could poach him! As a result, Reno's reconnaissance mission was completed by a large number of fervent lords. Then, influenced by the players, Reno, who was supposed to return to report, stayed in the Northern Territory. A large number of players hoping to recruit a Lagrang Royal Guard Paladin traveled far and wide to gather in the Northern Territory. Under the main AI's algorithm, Reno began issuing quests… And so, a new main storyline was created by the players! By the time the players came to their senses, Reno had already become the Governor of the Northern Territory. Good heavens, forget recruiting, just being able to meet him was a good thing.

This was still considered good. The most outrageous part was that because the players had completed a large number of quests to increase favorability, these quests brought Reno a massive amount of reputation. Do you know how terrifying Reno's reputation was? Think about how much reputation hundreds of thousands of Northern Territory players had generated for Reno. Someone compared the highest reputation holder, who was originally the Emperor of the Lagrang Empire, Gali Karl, with his 300 million reputation points. Reno? 700 million reputation points… The emperor was so scared that he enfeoffed Reno as a king. However, Reno didn't accept the crown of the King of the North. Instead, he asked for the position of Governor of the Northern Territory, leading all affairs in the North. The tragedy began from this moment…

Integrating the combined forces of millions of players, Reno led his army to attack the Orc fortress of Gundabad. However, he was besieged by various Orc tribes and evil creatures in the Misty Mountains. That battle was apocalyptic, the entire war lasted for half a month, and ultimately ended in the defeat of the player allied forces. A large number of Northern Territory lords' armies were annihilated, leaving the Northern Territory vulnerable. Aside from over a hundred thousand NPC troops, it was almost undefended. That battle was named "Twilight of the Empire" by the game's official staff and recorded in the game's annals. The Lagrang Empire at its peak occupied almost the entire Rhûn and more than half of Rhovanion. Due to the impact of the Twilight of the Empire battle, the evil factions in the Misty Mountains and the northern wastelands counterattacked, leading to the fall of the Rhovanion region. The entire Rhovanion region, except for the Elves' Woodland Realm, the Dwarves' Under-mountain Kingdom, the human Dale and Lake-town, and the Flowing City where the Governor-General's office was located, all fell. The channels connecting the entire Lagrang Empire with the outside world were completely severed. Rohan and Gondor to the south, and Arnor to the north, could not support the Lagrang Empire. Caught between the evil forces of Mordor and the northern Forodwaith region, the Lagrang Empire declared its demise. Only the regions north of the Rhûn Sea remained. The entire country was utterly crippled…

Reno did not fall into despair after that. He actively rallied NPC and player allied forces and, to the astonishment of the world, marched south. As a result, he encountered the allied Orc forces in the Greenleaf Forest (formerly Mirkwood)… Both sides, quite surprised, immediately engaged each other in a friendly greeting. Unexpectedly, the number of participants kept increasing. Not only human players and NPCs participated, but Elven players, Dwarven players, and Orc players also joined the fray! The entire Greenleaf Forest was in chaos. Countless lords' territories were destroyed, and countless soldiers perished. In the end, the war concluded with Reno successfully occupying Dol Guldur, marking the victory of the human allied forces. With this, the Lagrang Kingdom (no longer qualified to be an Empire, its national strength less than a former province) finally re-established contact with the human family. After all, constantly using teleportation arrays wasn't a solution. Now, it directly bordered the Golden Forest and Gondor.

Logically, things should have ended here. Now, it was time to accumulate strength and reclaim territory. But! Was Reno still Reno if he didn't stir up trouble? That wasn't Reno's style! As a result, Reno's glorious third war – the Pass Battle – began. This battle was also recorded in the game's annals. What was the situation? The situation was this: after returning, Reno realized that constantly heading south to contact other kingdoms wasn't ideal. So, he thought about finding a breakthrough in the west. After much searching, hey! He really found one! The old pass in the Misty Mountains! He sent people to contact Rivendell and then gathered a large army to feign an attack from the south. He and the Elves then attacked from both sides to capture the old pass. Everything was going well, right? But! The Greenleaf Forest suffered again. Again, countless lords were ravaged. The entire Greenleaf Forest was in chaos. The Dwarves and Orcs to the north, the Elves, humans, and half-orces to the south, the Lagrang Knights to the east, and the Elven rangers to the west… How could the entire Greenleaf Forest be described as anything but chaotic!

Finally, everyone calmed down and enjoyed a few days of peace at home. But Reno couldn't stand it. He looked around and saw that the Orcs in the north were a bit vulnerable. After discussing with the Woodland Realm, he rallied the Dwarves of Lonely Mountain and the humans of the Dale Kingdom, and initiated the Battle of Five Armies again. It was recorded in the annals again, historically known as – the Second Battle of Five Armies.

It was simply outrageous. Under Reno's leadership, the Lagrang Empire became a kingdom. The Elves of the Golden Forest were severely weakened. The human player lords of the Greenleaf Forest had their territories basically plowed through three times. The evil factions of the Misty Mountains were beaten into inferiority. The Orc kingdoms and Orc players in the north were beaten into collapse. Why? In the Second Battle of Five Armies, Reno launched another surprise attack. He didn't fight honorably! He actually sneaked into the Orcs' stronghold, Gundabad Fortress… and casually "borrowed" the Orc King's head, though he politely left the body behind, as he couldn't borrow too much. Adhering to the principle of "borrow and return, and you'll be able to borrow again," Reno thoughtfully charged out from the Orcs' rear while everyone was busy fighting hard. Well, he only brought tens of thousands of knights with him. Then, he raised the Orc King's head and "returned" it to the Orc army formation. The Orcs then fled in shame, and Reno led his army in pursuit…

Anyway, before Roland transmigrated, Reno was still preparing his army, seemingly gearing up for another major event. Now that Reno had transmigrated with him, Roland only hoped he wouldn't cause any major events. He had so few soldiers now, he couldn't afford to mess around. Back when Roland was still a viscount in the game, he only had about two thousand men. After the Battle of Greenleaf Forest… his territory was razed.

"Hopefully, tomorrow will be better," Roland quietly sighed, looking at the sunset.