Chapter 15
“Uh, uh-huh.”
For a moment, I was overwhelmed by their numbers, but when I saw the invaders begin charging, I pressed pause first.
-Orcs, fuck
-We're fucked
-Lure them in with traps;
The invaders turned out to be orcs, one of the nearby factions.
With their green skin and ugly appearance, they were one of the races inhabiting this planet according to the setting.
Those orcs were charging toward us with all kinds of firearms in their hands, including pistols and rifles.
“Why are they carrying guns? No, wait.”
I could understand there being a lot of them. But why did every single one of them have a gun?
-That's because you stockpiled resources like a beaver...
-You don't know they come based on your wealth?
-We told you to hurry up with technological development
No, I knew that, but I didn't expect them to show up carrying guns right away.
They were carrying axes earlier.
“What do I do?”
I kept the game paused and thought as quickly as I could.
How am I supposed to drive those things away?
-Should we start a new settlement??
-Just lure them into the traps
-You don't trust bear hunter Seongwon??
“No, even Seongwon can't handle this….”
Of course, Seongwon did have a rifle.
But we had one gun, while they had at least ten.
That meant ten bullets would come flying every time we fired one.
-We need to rally everyone and fight
-Gather them all up
“I'll give it a try.”
The difference in strength was huge, but that didn't mean we could just give up.
First, I drafted Nguyen and Seongwon.
The one good thing was that Nguyen had already laid down enough of the wall that we only needed to block off one side.
-What is Wayo doing??
-Drag out the guy playing Rell too
-That guy's still playing Rellㅋㅋ
“...He's incapable of combat.”
For reference, Wayo had the Incapable of Combat trait, so he couldn't fight.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, he's seriously fucking useless
-???
-Realism, fuckㅋㅋㅋ
“Still, he should stay nearby, right?”
Even so, Wayo was astonishingly good at treating people.
So we decided to have him wait somewhere safe with the medicine.
Seongwon and Nguyen stood side by side with their rifles.
“The traps really need to do their job….”
-We should've built the kill zone in advance
-Exactly, why did you drag your feetㅋㅋ
-Looks like we're going to hand them the house we built
-Let's start a new settlementㅋㅋ
-Should we just restart?
“We can't do that. Wayo worked so hard on the research. When would we ever do it again if we started a new settlement?”
-?
-??
-???
-This bastardㅋㅋ
“Anyway, we'll hold them off like this for now.”
Before they arrived, I rearranged the traps.
The enemies would come stampeding toward the warehouse, so I covered the area around it with traps.
I planned to have Nguyen and Seongwon circle around and lure them into stepping on the traps.
-Someone might die
-This is a real crisis
-We can't stop thisㅋㅋ
“You guys are making such a fuss….”
I scolded the chat for making a needless fuss and watched the approaching orcs.
Despite being orcs, they were properly dressed and carrying guns.
The good thing was that they weren't wearing any particularly convincing armor. They'd go down the moment they stepped on a trap.
“If things really look hopeless, we'll abandon the base and run.”
-They'll loot everything, though
-Then starting a new settlement would be betterㅋㅋㅋ
-We should've built the house out of wood, set it on fire, and left??
“You come into the world empty-handed and leave it empty-handed.”
If we lost everything, we could simply start over.
Weren't we all born empty-handed and destined to leave empty-handed anyway?
Humans started with nothing in the first place, so why fear losing things?
-This mindset, this is it bb
-Surviving comes first, though
“Still, that won't happen.”
Why? Because….
"Charge!"
Because we were going to win.
**
“Aah, aaagh.”
-Aaaah
-Seongwon's dying
-Aaaagh, his leg
The settlement was in ruins, scorched here and there, with entire sections of wall destroyed.
After barely driving off the enemies, Seongwon lay there bleeding profusely amid the wreckage.
The orcs were strong.
We used the traps well, and Seongwon kited them desperately, but things never go as easily as you want.
Before the enemies fled, a shotgun blast fired by one of the orcs struck Seongwon's leg directly….
[Leg: Torn]
Everything below his calf had been torn apart.
“Oh, Seongwon….”
I covered my mouth at the gruesome sight.
The kid had become disabled.
Being healthy had been his only real advantage, and now he'd lost it.
-Seongwon became Seongwoi..
“I'll ban Seongwoi….”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You insane bastardㅋㅋㅋ
-Let's buy him a prosthetic leg and attach itㅇㅇ..
“Oh, there are prosthetic legs?”
While Wayo hurriedly stopped Seongwon's bleeding, the chat offered at least one bit of good news.
His leg had been torn apart.
I thought he'd have to spend the rest of the game only processing things in front of a chair, but there were prosthetic legs.
-ㅇㅇ There are prosthetic legs
-Buying a good one actually raises a pawn's stats
-Let's go all-in and give him a robot leg?
“Oh….”
Something horrible had happened to him, but it might actually turn out to be a blessing.
Fortunately, Seongwon had liked robots since he was young.
He'd probably enjoy becoming Mecha Seongwon.
-Hey, you need to treat Nguyen too..
-Nguyen's dyingㅋㅋㅋ
-Nguyen, fuck, he's bleeding out
“Nguyen? Ah.”
Come to think of it, Nguyen had fought alongside us too.
I'd forgotten about him after he collapsed while holding out in the beginning.
“He's fine. He's sturdy, isn't he?”
After stopping Seongwon's bleeding, Wayo belatedly ran over to Nguyen.
-??
-Fuckㅋㅋㅋ
-He's infected
“Just put some spit on it and he'll be fine.”
Our Wayo might be a little slow at research because he's a late bloomer, but when it comes to medicine, he's practically Heo Jun himself.
Even now, he was quickly wrapping bandages around Nguyen's body.
-Look how fresh and clean Wayo isㅋㅋ
-He was leeching so hard by himselfㅋㅋㅋ
“Didn't you see Wayo put out all the fires?”
For reference, Wayo had actually made quite a major contribution.
While Seongwon was kiting the enemies, Wayo had quickly extinguished the fires the invaders started.
-He did do a good jobㅇㅇ
-But can we restore all this??
“Restore it? Hmm….”
As I said that, I looked at the settlement, which was almost completely in ruins.
In front of it, Seongwon sat hollow-eyed with his leg bandaged, while Wayo carried the unconscious Nguyen to a bed.
“Should we restart?”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Go go go
-Fuck, no
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-It really is hopeless
…When are we ever going to restore this?
“Haa.”
I let out a sigh at the thought of restoring the half-ruined settlement.
*
As a result.
The settlement that had once been reduced to ruins was rebuilt magnificently.
“Wow, there's nothing left to do now.”
-For real
-Automation completeㅋㅋ
-The talent is magnificent
The structure I'd originally planned was almost complete, and a whole host of new members had joined too.
Ichiro Suzuki… Muhammad Ali… Bob Marley, and so on.
Naming everyone had turned it into a multinational settlement, but in any case, it was running incredibly well.
It was hard to believe we'd gotten this far on our first playthrough.
Looking back, it was probably beginner's luck.
-He gets carried this hard and still acts like a god
-Ah, fuck, my points
-Kya, the settlement looks pretty
“Right? I think it looks pretty too.”
There were many things I liked about it, but the best part was the settlement's appearance.
We'd built a large outer wall around the center of the map.
Inside, the living and working areas were neatly divided.
On top of that, we now had stable food production through farms and fields.
“Are you watching, Seongfather….”
-RIP..
-Seongfather really soaked his pants completely…
-Seongwoi hyung..
The person most responsible for this view was, of course, Seongwon.
He'd saved the settlement at the cost of his leg, and afterward he'd thrown both hands and his remaining leg into rebuilding it.
-We will never forget…
-Please watch over us from heaven
-Seongwon hyung is alive, isn't he?ㅋㅋ
Ah, for reference, Seongwon was perfectly alive and well.
He was now protecting the settlement as Mecha Seongwon, equipped with a state-of-the-art prosthetic leg and, for good measure, prosthetic arms on both sides.
“Looks like he brought back a bear.”
Even now, he'd gone hunting and returned with a bear.
Unlike before, when he'd struggled and groaned just to bring down one, he was now returning with one bear hanging from each shoulder.
-Kyaㅋㅋㅋ Great Seongwon
-A whole two bears
-This bastard's good at everything except romance…
“Romance is….”
If Seongwon had one problem, it was that he still hadn't managed to get married.
That brat Nguyen already had three wives and four children.
Maybe he couldn't do it because losing a leg had given him a negative modifier to his appearance.
It was truly tragic. A guy who couldn't date in his previous life couldn't date even inside a game.
But then again… there was a strong element of self-inflicted punishment in his previous life.
I was the one who spent all my free time playing games in the first place.
There had occasionally been older guys from my construction crew who offered to introduce me to their daughters, but I rejected every one of them.
In a way, I suppose you could say I married gaming back then.
-Seongwon the GOAT ㅠㅜㅜ
-Should we just get him married to Wayo??
“Why? Wayo does fine on his own.”
For reference, Wayo was hopeless at romance too.
Maybe because of his Eccentric Genius trait, he got along poorly with every other pawn.
He even had a few enemies, so we'd given him a separate bedroom attached to the research lab.
-He's just a Rell addict;;
-He grew up pretty well somehowㅋㅋ
“Right? The settlement wouldn't run without Wayo anymore.”
For reference, Wayo had now become the GOAT of research.
Ah, not metaphorically—his ability was genuinely among the best on the planet.
-He really came onlineㅋㅋ
-The GOAT in the history of organic life
-Wayonaldoㅋㅋ
More importantly, lately, every game I'd played had ended badly.
It felt like I'd finally gotten some proper healing for the first time in a while.
Wouldn't dead Seongwon be satisfied if he saw this too?
Ah, he was already watching it with satisfaction.
“All right, then.”
Anyway, the settlement had stabilized, and it was getting late, so it was about time to…
-Ah
-Don't end the stream
-We have to launch the spaceship today
-Leaving already??
“The sun's up now.”
As I said that, I casually
turned my gaze down toward the area beneath the window.
In the early morning, just after sunrise, I could see office workers trudging along one by one to get to work before everyone else.
“Aren't you all going to work?”
-?
-??
-Going to work…?
- ㄱ-
“Ah-ha….”
-Why are you picking a fight??
-I'm a professional home security guard, though
-You don't work??
“Me? I don't go in until this afternoon.”
My morning schedule was empty, and I had one meeting late in the afternoon.
More importantly, I'd been having meetings more and more often lately.
Well, given the timing, it wasn't hard to understand why.
-The director's differentㅋㅋ
-What the hell is this guy's job?ㅋㅋ
-So no stream today…?
“I'm streaming right now, aren't I? Oh, and.”
More importantly, it was probably time to make an announcement, wasn't it?
It wasn't exactly something to say in this calm, peaceful morning atmosphere….
-?? What is it
-I'm getting nervous;;
-Don't tell me there's another stream break??
“Ahem, next month, I'll be taking about two weeks off.”
-?
-???
Unfortunately, I would be taking about two weeks off next month.
It wasn't for any particularly complicated reason….
'It's been a while since the fashion show.'
It was fashion-show season now.
I'd signed an official brand contract, so I had to do my real job.