When a socially anxious person is suddenly entrusted with an important task, the first feeling he or she will have is definitely not excitement, but simply fear.
At this moment Dark Archmage, the feeling of being watched by a hundred pairs of eyes reached its peak.
Colin, the guardian knight of Sandcastle Number Fifteen and Sandcastle Number Fourteen, has led half of his men to another fortress.
The remaining people naturally turned their attention to the [ Dark Archmage ], who had been entrusted with this important task.
So what should I do now?
The socially anxious woman's mind went blank for a moment, but after a brief moment of thought, she still issued her first order since taking office:
"Our garrison is much smaller. I suggest we regroup and increase patrol frequency to guard against a surprise attack from the Empire... We must learn from the experience of Fortress Number Fourteen."
After fooling the glaring skeletons and the group of gloating players, [ Dark Archmage ] immediately began his preparations.
She's just socially awkward, not stupid.
Fortress Number Fourteen, guarded by a hundred men and with a Middle Tier officer stationed there, was still unable to stop the players from the Imperial faction.
Although his own players were stronger, Sandcastle Number Fifteen occupied a larger area. If [ Howling Pothos ] brought fifty people to launch a counterattack next time, then nothing could be saved.
So after dealing with those skeleton soldiers, the first thing the [ Dark Archmage ] did was to issue a "Universal Security Declaration".
In other words, she posted a "cyber truce" sign on the interdimensional forum that Colin couldn't see, and the content was very simple and straightforward:
[The Empire- Alliance border, Central War Zone Fortress Number Fifteen is currently managed by the Alliance players and is in a crucial phase of grinding for battle points. We hope our fellow Empire players will be lenient and let us off the hook.]
[ Aluode ], who was galloping through the desert, saw this post and quickly sent a private message to [ Dark Archmage ] suggesting modifications. Soon after, the post was updated with the following sentence:
[As a reward, I will reveal some information about Fortress Number Sixteen. If you are interested in attacking it, you can go there. If you want to farm battle points, feel free to message me privately.]
[ Dark Archmage ] looked at the revised post and felt that it did indeed flow much better overall.
In [ Aluode's] words, everyone was originally playing their own game, but if a truce card were issued directly, some players would definitely want to take the initiative to see what the real situation was.
If it's just a small group of enemies, that's fine. But if it's a large group of enemies, and we really lose the city, we'll all have to start all over again.
With the addition of some basic intelligence about Fortress Number Sixteen, the goal of "diverting the trouble eastward" can be achieved.
By diverting the attention of players who enjoy combat to another sandcastle, Sandcastle Number Fifteen can naturally be guaranteed to be safe.
As for the players who joined Sandcastle Number Sixteen...
As far as they knew, Sandcastle Number Sixteen had not yet recruited Soul Returner mercenaries, even though the new mission had only been open for a short time.
Because neither the Empire nor the Alliance is part of the Theocracy, and their relationship with the Theocracy is not as good as that of the Graycast Corridor.
Therefore, players can only teleport or resurrect in the border area where the two methods intersect.
For the same reason, players are currently mainly infiltrating the northern border war zone, with very few players in the central and southern regions.
This gave [ Dark Archmage ] and [ Aluode ] and others room to maneuver.
So I can only apologize to Sandcastle Number Sixteen.
Otherwise, if another month passes and the place is full of players, people certainly won't be so easy to talk to.
As for now, there shouldn't be any players who were originally active far away but chose to travel over mountains and valleys to deliver food just because they saw this post...
If such a guy really exists, [ Dark Archmage ] feels he'd have to restart the game himself.
Alliance Border, Sandcastle Number Fourteen.
After galloping for more than twenty miles on their skeletal horses, Colin and his two hundred soldiers finally arrived at Sandcastle Number Fourteen.
This once impregnable fortress was now wide open, filled with bloodstains and various fragments and debris.
Many players carrying supplies felt somewhat embarrassed upon seeing this scene, as the area's current state was undoubtedly due to their previous reckless looting and squandering.
Other players, however, were somewhat unhappy about this.
If I had known I would have to come back to garrison it, why did I go through all that trouble to bring the spoils to Fortress Number Fifteen?
However, despite their thoughts, no one dared to disobey Colin.
Under the command of the fortress-guarding knight who had been stationed on the border for decades, the group quickly began the work of cleaning up the sandcastle and rebuilding the defense system.
While cleaning up the trash, [ Aluode ] suddenly thought of those silly little games he often saw on the internet.
Ads about starting with an abandoned mine and building various defensive machines by scavenging ruins and gathering resources are constantly plaguing his computer screen.
I never expected to be playing a real-life version of the game, only the level of simulation is vastly different.
Before he could think it through, he suddenly heard a familiar voice calling his name.
Turning his head, he saw the fortress knight Colin standing at the top of the stairs, a greatsword slung over his back and the bone knife, a relic of the knight Shalier, hanging at his waist, looking at him.
"Honorable knight, what are your orders?"
"Come with me, I have some questions for you."
"Yes."
With [ Aluode ] in tow, Colin entered the room at the highest point of Fortress Number Fourteen, which belonged exclusively to the fortress knights. Colin found a seat and sat down first.
The place was littered with trash and ruins, and manners had naturally been neglected. He pointed to the ground in front of him, gesturing for [ Aluode ] to sit down and talk.
"What business does Your Excellency have with me?"
[ Aluode ] sat opposite Colin, head bowed, and asked.
"Actually, I asked you to come here because I wanted to find out some information related to the Theocracy."
" The Theocracy?"
[ Aluode ] never expected that the other party would bring up this place.
What business did a lowly castle-guarding knight have with the Theocracy thousands of miles away?
Unexpectedly, Colin's tone lacked his usual arrogance befitting someone in a high position; instead, he genuinely seemed eager to learn.
"Yes, I learned from the previous Sand Capital documents that the Theocracy seemed to have been... usurped two months ago?"
Your choice of words...
[ Aluode ] lowered his head and reminded him:
"Before joining the Alliance as a mercenary under your command, I was first and foremost a Soul Returner."
"All right."
Colin realized there was something wrong with his statement, so he changed his tune:
"You successfully assisted that Son of God in completing the dynastic change of the Theocracy, didn't you?"
"Yes."
[ Aluode ] nodded and said:
What would you like to know about the battles during that period?