Chapter 87: Her First Move

CLANG!

The sound of metal against metal hit the valley.

Zion adjusted herself on her throne.

It was made of hundreds of breastplates, helms, and gauntlets of the Inquisition, all melted and twisted until they formed a deformed chair.

It was hot, but Zion didn’t sweat.

She opened her eyes. Her irises shone with boredom.

In front of her, the air filled with neon blue lines of code that only she saw.

[GAME MASTER INTERFACE]

[LOCATION: Ruins of the Radiant Empire (Zone Level 30-45)]

[FACTION: The Unchained]

[POPULATION: 243 Units]

[RESOURCES: Critical]

“Four years early,” Zion muttered, tapping on a Paladin’s helmet that was her armrest. “I broke the sequence. This event shouldn’t happen until the Civil War Arc.”

It felt… wrong.

Like using a glitch to skip the tutorial and falling into the mid-game without the right gear.

But Zion hated tutorials.

She looked at the people moving through the camp between the broken marble columns.

To the world, they were refugees.

Deserters of King Aurelian.

Prostitutes running from the Church’s brothels.

Farmers who didn’t want to die in someone else’s war.

To Zion, they were numbers.

[NPC: Deserter (Class: Warrior Lvl 12)]

[NPC: Peasant (Class: Commoner Lvl 2)]

’Resources,’ she thought coldly. ’Cannon fodder to farm XP before the final Boss.’

In her previous “runs”, she never cared since she used them and spent them, they were tools.

But this time… the code felt different.

A girl about six years old ran after a rat.

Her tunic was huge for her, and it was stained with mud.

Zion frowned.

The interface appeared over the girl’s head.

[NPC: War Orphan]

[STATUS: Mild Malnutrition]

The girl stopped and looked towards the metal throne.

For a second, Zion didn’t see an NPC.

She saw Maya.

The memory hit her.

Maya, her little sister in the “Real World”, the one who asked for bedtime stories before cancer took her.

“Shit,” Zion whispered.

She put her hand to her temple.

’It’s just a reused model,’ she forced herself to think. ’The devs are lazy, they just recycle faces, it’s not real.’

But the girl smiled, with a dirty smile, toothless, and waved at her.

Zion felt a sting in her chest.

“Liberator!”

The scream broke her moment.

A bulky man with the dented armor of a sergeant ran up the steps and knelt.

THUMP!

Zion recovered her mask of coldness.

“Report, Unit Varek,” she said, with her authoritative voice.

Varek raised his head.

He was afraid, just like everyone else.

And they should be, since last week she killed an entire battalion with a snap of her fingers.

“The scouts returned, my lady.” Varek swallowed saliva. “The Church’s troops crossed Kethyr Pass, this time it’s the Dawn Templars.”

“How many?”

“Three hundred, with heavy cavalry and two siege mages.”

A red window appeared in Zion’s interface.

[EVENT: THE SOUTHERN PURGE]

[ENEMY: Templar Battalion (Average Level 25)]

[DIFFICULTY: Hard]

[OBJECTIVE: Defend the Base]

Zion leaned back.

She could kill them.

It would cost mana and maybe an item from her Hero Inventory, but she could do it.

“And?” Zion asked, bored. “What’s the problem?”

“They are coming fast, my lady,” Varek said, his voice trembling. “They plan to surround the ruins, if we stay, they will starve us out and if we go out to fight…”

Varek looked at the civilians, including the girl playing with the rat.

“They will massacre those who can’t fight.”

Zion looked at her interface.

[RECOMMENDED STRATEGY: TURTLE DEFENSE]

[ACTION: Use civilians as human shields to slow enemy advance.]

[RESULT: Tactical Victory.]

[ESTIMATED CASUALTIES: 85% of Civilian Population.]

[GAIN: +1200 XP for the Player.]

It was the logical move.

Civilians were a renewable resource.

She could always get more.

The important thing was that she leveled up to face Zhalyr.

“Prepare the defenses on the perimeter,” Zion said, her voice without emotion. “Archers on the high columns.”

Varek nodded, eyes full of resignation.

“And… the civilians, Liberator? The elders and the children?”

Zion opened her mouth to give the order: ’Let them serve as bait.’

But then, the girl down below tripped and scraped her knee, but she got up, wiped the blood, and kept running.

Zion clenched her fist.

’Damn it.’

“Change of plans,” Zion said.

Varek blinked. “My lady?”

Zion stood up and her shadow lengthened over the ruins.

“Evacuate the civilians,” she ordered. “Take them to the northern caves. You and your best men cover their retreat.”

Varek looked at her like she was crazy.

“But… Liberator… that will leave the southern flank exposed. If the Templars enter through there… they will come straight for you and you will be alone against them.”

Zion’s interface went crazy.

[ALERT: STRATEGY DEVIATION]

[UNRECOGNIZED ACTION: PROTECT NPCs?]

[CALCULATION: INEFFICIENT.]

[PLAYER DEATH RISK: INCREASED TO 40%]

[CONFIRM?]

“I won’t be alone,” Zion said. “I have my inventory and I want to test a new build.”

She raised her hand and touched the air.

[CONFIRM]

The interface blinked green.

“Now move, Varek,” Zion growled. “Before I change my mind and use you all as fuel.”

“Yes! Yes, my lady! Glory to the Liberator!”

Varek got up and ran down the stairs, shouting orders with a new energy.

Zion watched him go.

’I’m just protecting my investment,’ she lied to herself. ’If they die, I won’t be able to tax them.’

Suddenly, a panic scream broke the air.

“Messenger from the Capital!”

A young man stumbled into the throne area.

Zion’s guards pointed spears at him, but she stopped them with a gesture.

The boy fell to his knees, gasping, with a scroll in his hand.

“Don’t kill me! I’m just the bearer!” he squealed.

“Speak,” Zion said.

“I bring news from Phaedra, it’s about the King… and the Church.”

The boy raised the scroll. With a movement from Zion, the paper flew to her hand.

She unrolled it.

[WANTED: THE HERETIC OF THE SOUTH]

[REWARD: 10,000 SOLARIS (ALIVE)]

[CHARGES: WITCHCRAFT, SEDITION, ATTEMPTED DEICIDE]

Zion let out a dry laugh.

“Ten thousand?” she said, offended. “Only ten thousand? What an insult, in my last game my head was worth fifty million.”

She threw the poster on the ground.

“That’s not all…” the messenger said. “A hooded man gave me this for you. He said you would understand the seal.”

The boy took out another object.

It was a piece of cured, ancient skin.

Zion frowned and the object flew to her hand.

Zion turned it over.

It was a circle with nine points, the symbol of the Ancient Pantheon.

The gods that had supposedly died.

But what froze her blood was the text.

It wasn’t in the language of Phaedra.

It was written in English. Modern English.

“You are not the first Player. Nor will you be the last.”

“The Forge awaits. Don’t trust the System.”

Zion stood paralyzed, the world around her stopped.

[GAME MASTER INTERFACE]

’She always thought she was unique! But if there was another…’

’If someone else knew the language of her world…’

Zion squeezed the scroll until her nails went through it.

“Who gave you this?”

The messenger whimpered.

“I didn’t see his face. He wore a white bone mask and said he would see you at the end of the world.”

Zion stood up abruptly.

CRACK!

Her interface failed for a second.

[SYSTEM ERROR: EXTERNAL DATA DETECTED]

[ORIGIN: UNKNOWN]

Zion looked at the horizon, towards the north.

“I thought this was a Single Player,” Zion muttered, and a smile of pure madness appeared. “But it seems someone just invited me to Multiplayer.”

The scroll burned in her hand with a violet flame.

“Good,” she said. “I love PvP challenges.”

She turned to Varek, who had come running back.

“Forget the defense,” Zion said. “We are going to attack, I want to capture one of those Templars alive and I need to know who pulls the strings in the capital.”

She looked at the sky. “If there is another Player out there… I’m going to make him rage quit existence.”

[QUEST UPDATED: HUNT FOR THE PHANTOM PLAYER]

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