Chapter Summaries

Chris improved the march by giving Isaac authority to organize and arm the group, then addressed a sentry’s negligence after a bear attacked the camp. He introduced punishments and sugar rewards for sentries, leaving Isaac with eager recruits for watch duty while Mia privately asked Chris for candy.

• At a meeting, Lin Ruoyu recommended assigning people to bring up the rear, and Isaac proposed distributing matchlocks to trustworthy men; Chris put Isaac in charge of arming and training the group.
• The next day, Isaac organized the march and issued matchlocks to reliable men while scouts found paths that helped the group travel twelve kilometers.
• A bear charged the camp, and Lin Ruoyu, Carlos, and the others fought it until they killed it.
• Chris learned that a mercenary sentry had neglected his watch and rejected Isaac’s proposal to execute him, instead ordering punishment for the negligent squad and extra meat and sugar water for sentries.
• Mercenaries eagerly volunteered for sentry duty after Isaac announced the sugar allowance, while Mia went to Chris and asked him for sugar.

After reaching the Bohemia-Bagnia border, Chris sought a safe way across a wide, ice-filled river. Mia identified a downstream crossing and estimated it was about half an hour away, so Chris set off to inspect it.

• The troops reached the Bohemia-Bagnia border a day earlier than Chris expected, and he assigned Isaac to establish camp and security.
• Chris examined the river and realized floating chunks of ice could make crossing dangerous.
• Mia said that she and her parents had crossed downstream where Aisha had found a flat riverbed and a rope.
• Mia demanded milk candy from Chris and measured the distance to the crossing as fifteen candies, sharing half her candy with Aisha.
• Chris estimated the crossing was about half an hour away and called for soldiers to accompany him downstream.

Pasa, a scout of the Oka Tribe, watched a disciplined group of black-clad outsiders near the Nait River before a player captured him. Chris and Isaac worried that the outsiders had entered Mountain Savage territory, until Mia understood Pasa and the captive began singing to her white pig.

• Pasa observed the black-clad outsiders from a distance and considered approaching the Nait River to inspect them more closely.
• Barbarossa captured Pasa near the outsiders' camp and tied him to a tree.
• Chris questioned the captive, while Barbarossa and Home Alone argued over whether to keep or kill him.
• Isaac recognized Pasa as a Mountain Savage from El Province and warned Chris that they might be in the tribe's territory.
• Mia understood Pasa asking who the outsiders were and why they had come, and Pasa began singing excitedly to her white pig.

Chris released Pasa, fed him at camp, and let him leave after he worshipped Mia’s pig, Aisha. That night, about a hundred Oka savages arrived at the camp, and Mia explained they had come because they were hungry.

• Chris awarded Barbarossa a Third-Class Sword Medal for capturing Pasa, and Barbarossa freed him before running off to show the medal to the other players.
• Pasa worshipped Aisha, then asked Chris who he was and what he was doing in the Oka Tribe’s hunting grounds; Chris had Isaac slap him before Mia translated their explanation and offer to let him go.
• Chris took everyone back to camp and served dinner, where Pasa ate several bowls of staple food, bowed to Aisha, and ran off; Lin Ruoyu failed to persuade Chris to follow him.
• Isaac fortified the camp with wire fencing and log barricades and doubled the sentries, while Chris decided to dress more practically when sleeping outdoors.
• After a mercenary reported that savages had arrived, Chris found about a hundred unarmed Oka people gathered outside the camp, and Mia said they had come to eat.

Chris fed a hungry tribe of savages with mixed-grain rice after Mia revealed that Aisha had promised they could eat at the camp. After the savages devoured three hundred jin of grain, their chief approached Chris offering hides in exchange for food.

• Mia blamed Aisha for telling the savages they could eat at the camp, and Chris agreed to feed them.
• Chris cooked ten barrels of salted mixed-grain rice with chicken fat and brought them out for the savages.
• The savages ate all ten barrels quickly, so Chris cooked another five barrels for them.
• The savages finished the extra food and finally appeared full.
• The savages' chief approached Chris and offered hides in exchange for food.

Chris traded food and weapons to the Mountain Savages for fifteen polar bear pelts, which he recognized as highly valuable. The savages revealed they had more pelts and asked to trade them for muskets.

• Chris remembered his failed attempts to buy leather in the Bohemian Empire and asked the Mountain Savages to show him their hides.
• The savages brought fifteen well-preserved polar bear pelts from the Kaslo Mountains, and Chris estimated their value at hundreds of thousands of yuan.
• Chris offered fifty kilograms of mixed grain per pelt, along with spears, iron arrowheads, and iron pots, in exchange for the pelts.
• After Isaac explained that the Mountain Savages mainly fought the Retalia Empire, Chris gave them ten matchlock muskets and ammunition.
• The Mountain Savages celebrated the muskets, and their chief asked Chris to trade for more pelts they had across the river.

Chris Lin's caravan crossed into Bagnia with the Mountain Savages, endured a difficult climb through the Kaslo Mountains, and traded weapons and supplies for valuable furs. He refused to tell Popoli about the alliance, warning Isaac that the Mountain Savages' pelts and mountain routes were too valuable to risk revealing.

• The caravan and the Mountain Savages used a rope-and-plank floating bridge to cross the icy river into Bagnia, then shared the mountain trail.
• Chris struggled with the cold and climb, while the Mountain Savages showed little fatigue; he gave them sweet tea during a rest stop.
• After several days of slow travel, the Mountain Savages brought Chris bear, seal, and other pelts, which he traded for guns, arrowheads, pots, grain, and medicine.
• Isaac urged Chris to send the furs back and give Popoli his share, but Chris refused to reveal their ties to the Mountain Savages.
• Chris warned Isaac that Popoli might betray them and explained that the pelts and the savages' knowledge of mountain shortcuts had to remain secret.

Bruno led more than a thousand starving residents of Bichi Town to face the advancing Bagnian Restoration Army, which planned to massacre them. As Bruno prepared to fight with nowhere to retreat, someone reported that soldiers in black were coming down the mountain.

• Bruno gave his last piece of black bread to his hungry son, then took a matchlock and sword as his wife wished him a safe return.
• Bruno led the town’s armed residents out to meet more than three hundred Restoration Army soldiers and their noble officers.
• The Restoration Army officers ordered their troops to kill the people of Bichi Town and claim credit for the massacre.
• Bruno recognized that his hungry, poorly armed militia stood little chance against the advancing soldiers but resolved to fight for their home.
• A resident warned Bruno that soldiers in black were coming down the mountain.

Chris led his exhausted force toward Beech Town after scouts reported that a royalist army was advancing on it. He arrived as the army confronted the townspeople and began arranging his troops for a show of strength.

• Chris rested his force in a ravine near Beech Town and brought fifty new players into camp, telling Isaac they were Mountain Savages.
• Chris's scouts reported that a gray-robed army bearing Bagnia's royal banner was marching toward Beech Town.
• Chris hurried his force toward the town and arrived as the Restoration Army advanced on the townspeople.
• Chris ordered his troops to form ranks, but the caravan hands and mercenaries struggled while the players quickly assembled.
• Chris decided to place the players in the front rank.

Chris Lin’s Bagnia Defense Force arrived near Bich Town and faced MacDonald’s Restoration Army, which chose to attack them first. As the Restoration Army advanced, Bruno tried to persuade the hungry Bich Town militia to join the fight, but they refused, so he charged toward the enemy alone.

• MacDonald spotted Chris’s black-clad force on the hillside, and Chris halted his troops on the advantageous terrain.
• Barbarossa told MacDonald’s messengers that the force was the Bagnia Defense Force, acting on Prince Chris Lin’s orders to take control of Bich Town.
• MacDonald learned that Chris was a real prince but chose to advance against the unfamiliar force rather than retreat.
• The Restoration Army marched toward the hillside, trampling Bruno’s wheat shoots as Bruno recognized that Bich Town needed to attack and tie down its troops.
• Bruno urged the militia to attack, but Acha and the others refused, so Bruno handed off his matchlock, raised his sword, and charged toward the enemy.

Chris positioned the inexperienced mercenaries in cover and personally directed fifty players as McDonald’s Restoration Army advanced. The players’ continuous gunfire inflicted losses before McDonald ordered his musketeers to return fire at close range.

• Chris told Isaac to position the non-barbarian soldiers in cover and open fire, while he took command of the barbarians.
• Connie and several young men took up positions to protect Chris as McDonald’s troops advanced toward the hillside.
• Chris ordered the fifty players to aim at the center of the enemy formation, but a player shouted the first volley before Chris gave the firing command.
• Isaac and the caravan hands supplied the players with loaded muskets and carried away empty ones, allowing the players to fire repeatedly despite some coordination problems.
• McDonald’s soldiers suffered casualties under the sustained fire, so McDonald halted his troops and ordered them to return fire.

Chris’s force exchanged fire with the Restoration Army, whose musketeers suffered mounting casualties and confusion despite their advancing volleys. As enemy swordsmen circled toward the flanks, Chris spotted an opportunity, while Carrot kept firing until a whistle signaled the players to charge.

• Chris ordered Connie to take her people and carry the wounded behind the slope for first aid.
• The players’ steady fire inflicted heavy losses on the Restoration Army musketeers, whose reloading mistakes grew as they advanced.
• The enemy swordsmen moved through smoke toward the defense force’s flanks, and Chris realized their musketeers had lost their cover.
• Carrot fired eight shots and recorded two kills before hearing the whistle signal a charge.
• Carrot dropped his matchlock, drew his two-handed saber, and charged with the other players.

Chris ordered an all-out charge that let the Barbarian players break through McDonald's musketeers and rout the Restoration Army's main force. As the remaining enemy troops reacted, Chris called off the pursuit and rallied the wounded players, leaving the battle won but the Defense Force badly depleted.

• Chris and the players charged downhill, and the first volley killed three of the leading players before the survivors broke into the musketeers' ranks.
• Knife-in-the-Butt cut through the enemy formation, killing or wounding several musketeers and opening a breach for the other players to widen.
• Knife-in-the-Butt killed McDonald's adjutant, while McDonald escaped on horseback and the musketeers fled after discovering their commander was gone.
• Chris urged the players onward as Isaac and the mercenary musketeers fired on the returning sword-and-shield troops, prompting them to flee as well.
• The Restoration Army sergeant major turned his spearmen toward the main battlefield, so Chris blew his whistle and ordered his forces to rally instead of continuing the pursuit.

After the Restoration Army retreated, Chris ordered the battlefield cleared, treated the wounded, and summoned the Bich Town militia’s leader. He discovered the militia captain could be saved and that the local men were starving.

• Chris halted the pursuit when enemy pikemen covered the Restoration Army’s retreat, and Knife-in-the-Butt collapsed from his wounds before Carrot carried him away for revival.
• Chris sent ten players to watch the retreating enemy and ordered Isaac to tend to wounded soldiers who could be saved.
• Chris treated his own wounded, then asked Connie to bring him the leader of the Bich Town militia, which had remained nearby after the battle.
• Connie brought the wounded militia captain to Chris, who diagnosed two survivable stab wounds and ordered his medical kit.
• Chris told Connie to have the kitchen crew cook porridge after recognizing that the four militiamen were starving and the captain had fainted from hunger.

McDonald tried to regroup his routed soldiers while three enemy shooters harassed them from a nearby hill. Bruno woke in a tent after his family received food and clothes from people serving Prince Chris, and he wondered who the prince was.

• McDonald stopped to rest after escaping the battle and admitted he did not know why his army had lost.
• A distant shot killed the Bohemian sergeant major, and McDonald spotted three enemy shooters on a hill.
• McDonald sent a dozen soldiers to drive off the shooters while the remaining musketeers fired at the hillside for cover.
• McDonald began organizing sentries, searching for missing soldiers, and counting supplies and casualties.
• Bruno woke in a tent and learned that people serving His Highness Prince Chris had given his family food and new clothes.
• Little Bruno fed his father thick porridge, and Bruno asked who Prince Chris was.

Chris awarded medals to the players who fought at Bich Town, then agreed to honor the dead with a funeral and pay the costs of their resurrection. He left the militia leader’s bedside visit for later and ordered Connie to announce his rule over the town, using force and food to quell resistance.

• Chris awarded Knife-in-the-Butt a gold Medal of Valor, First Class, and gave five other players silver or brass medals.
• Chris noticed ten players had not returned, checked that they were alive, and decided not to pursue them.
• Isaac told Chris that twenty-nine men had died, and Chris agreed to hold a farewell ceremony, cremate the dead, and pay to prepare replacement bodies for the players.
• Chris visited the medical tents and deferred meeting the militia leader after his frightened wife retreated from the tent entrance.
• Chris told Connie to announce that the Defense Force had taken over Bichi Town and that Prince Chris would rule, ordering her to use the militia and cut off food if anyone resisted.

After mourning the twenty-nine fallen players, Starbucks told Bruno that Chris wanted to end hunger, while Home Alone showed Chris a magical pistol taken from a dead noble. Chris then used porridge, militia rewards, land, and punishments to secure Bich Town's loyalty, and Bruno exposed a former mayor plotting against him.

• Bruno joined Starbucks in watching the funeral pyres burn, and Starbucks explained that he had come to serve Prince Chris as a battlefield doctor.
• Home Alone gave Chris a magical wheellock pistol taken from a noble, and Chris explained that it could fire bullets that struck wherever the shooter looked.
• Chris fed Bich Town's starving people porridge for three days and recruited over a hundred townspeople into the Biki Militia Regiment with meals and land as rewards.
• Chris offered rewards for reporting people who insulted him and lashes for those who concealed such insults, leading eight townspeople to be punished.
• Bruno rejected the former mayor's plan to drive Chris out and reported him, and the players hanged the mayor as Bruno and other townspeople applauded.

Chris consolidated his rule in Bich Town, reorganized land and military command, and began planning upgrades for the town’s troops and weapons. He sent Players on scouting missions while preparing to replace cumbersome matchlocks with flintlocks.

• Eight Players returned after three days of guerrilla attacks, bringing more than twenty prisoners, and Chris awarded the survivors Sword Medals.
• Chris announced that most fields would be redistributed and organized production brigades to provide a transitional communal food supply.
• Isaac urged Chris to establish a unified command, and Chris decided to treat the Players as vassals within a feudal system while opening forty more beta slots.
• Chris assigned scouting missions and supplies to active Players, who left Bich Town because the town could not accommodate them all.
• Chris judged the heavy matchlocks unsuitable for battlefield use and planned to build flintlocks using purchased steel tubing and springs.
• Chris concluded that armor could still be effective and decided to equip his troops and the Players with protective gear.

Lin Ruoyu tested the instructors’ command system as they drilled the militiamen, then visited the quartermaster to learn how players could recruit followers and obtain Chris’s new currency. The chapter ended with Lin Ruoyu discovering that silver coins could be exchanged or acquired through top-ups.

• Lin Ruoyu used command mode to arrange a hundred militiamen into a three-rank firing formation, and the instructors got them into place within three minutes.
• Lin Ruoyu and the other Ultramarines players left the drill ground and went to the quartermaster’s office to recruit followers.
• The quartermaster gave Lin Ruoyu a recruitment form, which showed that players with ten reputation could recruit infantry musketeer instructors, infantry Spearmen instructors, or infantry company adjutants.
• The quartermaster showed Lin Ruoyu the one-dollar and ten-dollar silver coins and explained that the currency had three denominations: ten dollars, one dollar, and ten cents.
• The quartermaster told Lin Ruoyu that players could obtain money by exchanging silver coins or topping up.

After the top-up system went live, Lin Ruoyu and the other Extreme Warriors funded their warband and chose weapons and armor for its troops. They finished outfitting the warband, leaving the group prepared to test its new equipment in future battles.

• Lin Ruoyu discovered the unannounced top-up update and added a hundred thousand yuan to his account, while the other players also spent heavily.
• Lin Ruoyu and the other nine leaders reviewed the armory’s weapons and agreed to buy a Crouching Tiger Cannon and heavy Flintlocks for the warband’s NPC soldiers.
• Lin Ruoyu persuaded the players to choose lightweight armor suited to mountain warfare, including steel helmets and cuirasses.
• The Extreme Warriors spent an afternoon and twenty thousand silver dollars buying combat gear, supplies, and military equipment for the warband.