Chapter 272: Excursion Part V

Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

If Section 82 was being taken over just by me stepping foot on it, it only meant one thing; it was completely empty. “Huh… did they all run away?”

It was definitely not a bad thing. The enemy was going to lose another Section and receive another 5% hike in prices. It was also a good chance for me to act a little generous.

“Call: Zulova, Yang Kitae.”

“…” Zulova remained calm, since this was already his third time being Called like this, while my clan member was visibly confused.

“Where are we, sir?”

“This is Section 82. Did the both of you receive the message about it?”

“Yes, sir. Earth had started the takeover of Section 82 and in 24 hours…”

“That’s right. We’ll be granted rewards. And you don’t need to worry. There are no enemies here.”

“Ah…” Yang Kitae sighed and seemed to calm down.

I turned to Zulova standing off to the side, who spoke up first. “Are you going to let us in on the 20 million golden rings?”

“Yeah! How’d you know?”

“It wasn’t just a few soldiers who invaded Section 79 that day. Just about everyone on Earth knows about the twenty million you get just for participating. And it’s not like the Empire tried to keep that hidden.”

“Well, you’re not wrong. But that’s why I brought you here specially.”

“Shouldn’t you be saying that before you already destroyed an enemy Section?”

“Erk.” He got me there, to be honest. “That’s… because I was too busy! Do you know how many enemy soldiers there were on Section 81? More than three hundred thousand! And there were two deities like you! It was absolute chaos!”

“Sure, whatever you say.”

“I’m telling you the truth!”

Zulova brushed off Lee Jiwon’s excuses, but didn’t press the issue. He didn’t make it obvious, but he was absolutely terrified. In the end, Lee Jiwon had killed two deities and defeated an army of three hundred thousand soldiers on his own!

“I’m serious! I had such a hard time. Have you fought against three hundred thousand people alone? They were also veteran soldiers chosen specifically to protect a frontline Section!”

“…” Zulova didn’t say any more. He didn’t know what to say to this monster.

—

When Zulova stopped talking altogether, I turned away from him and let him do his own thing, while I took out my Comm Link to contact base.

“Hello?”

“It’s Lee Jiwon.”

“Oh! Yes, sir!”

“I’m in the process of taking over the enemy’s Section 82. We have exactly twenty-four hours left. I also have a Warp Mage here with me and we’re about to set up a Teleporter Zone.”

“Are… you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

“I am. I want you to send over as many of our soldiers over here as possible, so they can receive the twenty million.”

“Yes, sir! I’ll report it to the officers right away!”

“Thank you.” I hadn’t exactly planned on doing this, but it was the perfect chance to share the wealth, nonetheless.

I returned my Comm Link into my inventory and turned to the Warp Mage. He must have overheard enough of my conversation that when he noticed my gaze, he nodded. “Leave it to me, sir.”

“Thanks.”

Yang Kitae made himself busy right away. It wasn’t easy to set up a Teleporter Zone, and alone at that. It took him about thirty minutes to finish, and soon after more Warp Mages crossed over from base. They took up their positions around the Teleporter Zone to help stabilize it and ready it for the coming mass of Empire soldiers. In a matter of minutes, thousands and thousands had crossed over, including my mother, grandfather, and many of my clan members. A chance to obtain twenty million golden rings for free was too good to pass up, after all.

When they had all crossed over, the Empire’s officers lined up around me.

“Thank you, Commander Lee.”

“You really are something, Jiwon. To think you’ve taken over two Sections on your own…”

“Please, you don’t need to thank me. I only did what was necessary for all of us to become stronger together.” That was a pretty decent answer, if I say so myself. Sure, I was going to keep the rewards for taking over Section 82 if they were going to be as good as what I got from Section 81. But after taking over Section 81, I now knew that there needed to be a lot of enemy soldiers to get decent rewards. Since there was nobody here at Section 82, I might as well take that chance to make sure my soldiers could get one up on the enemy as well. I had base send more soldiers and more Warp Mages to stabilize the Teleporter Zone here. By the end of the twenty-four hours, we had moved over four hundred thousand soldiers to Section 82.

==[World 1512 will receive a penalty for losing Section 82 to the enemy.

The Stores of World 1512’s remaining Sections will experience a 5% increase in prices.]==

“Alright!”

“That’s our third one already!”

The soldiers that had come over to Section 82 cheered loudly together as Section 82 was destroyed around them. Not only was the enemy going to receive another 5% price hike, our soldiers had also each received twenty million golden rings. For some of them, it was the most money they’d seen since coming to the Judge’s Continent.

==[You have obtained 1 contribution point. You will receive 20,000,000 golden rings for participating in the full invasion of an enemy’s Section.]==

==[You have obtained 10 golden rings for 1 contribution point.]==

I frowned at the messages I received. Ten golden rings for one contribution point. That was so little! But I quickly wiped the frown away as I heard my name being chanted in a hurrah.

“Lee Jiwon! Lee Jiwon!” It was so loud that I felt the ground trembling from the sound.

I raised both my arms to accept their cheer. If I hadn’t, I was sure they wouldn’t stop until I did.

“How shall we return home?”

“Let’s walk it. The Warp Mages have kept the Teleporter stable without rest for the past twenty-four hours,” I said as I glanced over to the Warp Mages. They were all completely exhausted.

——-

A fortnight later…

It took us a little more than two weeks to get back to Section 3 from Section 82. Once we arrived, I took my family and clan members back to Section 35. It wouldn’t be long until the invasion began, and I needed to rest up before then.

That night, I received a several visitors. Song Daechul and the other guild masters had come together to see me.

“What brings you all here?”

“We want you to have this.” Song Daechul, who stood out in front, handing something over.

When I accepted it, I noticed that it was golden rings, and a tremendous amount, at that.

“The golden rings the Empire made from Section 82 is all thanks to you, Jiwon.”

“Please, I haven’t done much this time. It was empty, anyway.”

“You’re the reason it was empty in first place, after what you did to Section 81.”

“…” He wasn’t wrong there.

“This was the most we could come up with. Ten billion golden rings. I’m sure it’s not much compared to what you can make on your own, but we hope you will still accept this gift of ours.”

“No, it’s more than enough; too much, in fact…” More than four hundred thousand Empire soldiers had obtained twenty million golden rings each two weeks ago. That was no small amount, that was for sure. Not to mention the fact that those golden rings were the only golden rings the soldiers could trade. The golden rings they earned from hunting monsters here or the golden rings they brought from Earth were bound to them. The soldiers who came to Section 82 were also veterans and elites who needed those golden rings badly.

This was just how highly they thought of me. I had to use the money wisely.

——

Three days later…

While I was taking it easy at my home, I received a call from the Empire’s officers to come to an emergency meeting. At the caller’s urgent tone, I quickly headed over to the base in Section 35. When I arrived at the conference room, I saw that there were already many officers and guild masters of other Earth guilds already there. Something was definitely wrong. I quickly took my seat at the head of the table.

Baden al Nayan of the Abu Dhabi Guild was the first to speak. “Our scouts have reported that the Crootians are sending another large army our way.”

“Really?”

“Yes, sir. Their numbers exceed two million this time.”

“Huh… it hasn’t been more than a few months since Angel came with a million soldiers and to send that many more soldiers this soon… they really are taking advantage of their population,” I said, clicking my tongue. Those soldiers were most likely veterans, as well. I was still confident we could win and actually looked forward to fighting them. It was another chance to gain more golden rings and levels, not to mention I was much stronger than when I fought against Angel.

“This invading force is much different than their previous armies.”

“What do you mean?”

“According to the reports, this is Croot’s strongest force yet.”

“Hooo…”

“Furthermore, this army is led by none other than Claudia, Croot’s strongest deity. We know her as the Time Controller.”

“Time Controller… Sounds serious.” If she could really control time itself, we could not afford to underestimate her.

“Yes, sir. We had the Gnosis Guild and all of our Intelligence divisions focus on gathering more information on her, but the only thing they could find out about her was that she was called the Time Controller. She’s heavily guarded as well, especially since their recent losing streak. But we can say with confidence that she carries the most influence in all of Croot. There are rumors that she can easily lay waste to millions of enemy soldiers.”

“If she is that strong, I wonder why she hasn’t revealed herself sooner. Losing streak aside, Croot has already lost three Sections.”

“We can’t say for sure why. But it’s clear she is the final boss, for better or worse. There’s a good chance this next battle will decide the outcome of this war.”

“…” If she really was the final boss, then it was too early for her to enter the fight. It had only been a little over a year since we entered the Judge’s Continent. I felt that I could have grown stronger if she revealed herself a little later, but that wasn’t always a good thing.

Victor Lucas of the Messenger Guild stood up to address the room. “Now that we’re all here, I suggest we start the meeting. I will take this chance to thank the Gnosis Guild once more for bringing us this valuable intel.”

“Don’t mention it. We were only doing our duty,” Alpha said.

With that out of the way, we began to discuss how to best meet the enemy in battle. Every single one of us took this seriously. Even I could tell that this coming battle was not going to be easy.

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