A Village Appeared on My Desktop

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Chapter 133 – The Worst Situation

‘This is the worst-case scenario.’

Balun gritted his teeth. Of course, who wouldn’t think that in this situation, but Balun’s thoughts were a bit different. The battle that seemed to be going well according to plan had been completely thrown off by the interruption of the Bugs.

‘They were aiming for this. It’s obvious.’

Before Balun’s eyes was the horrific scene of the clash. Ruthless Black Monsters attacked anyone in sight, and countless individuals were sacrificing themselves to block the onslaught from those who charged in, trusting their solid carapace.

The Arin Tribe was holding on, however. Experienced individuals were leading the newcomers, somehow maintaining their position.

But Luke’s soldiers were different. They had little experience fighting Bugs, and thus knew and possessed very little.

One glitch, with but a scratch from a spear that stabbed him, crushed a soldier screaming in agony and bit into the arm of the soldier next to him, having wrapped the spear in its legs and snapped it with sheer force.

‘If only they had all made the right choices!’

Although they were forms he had just fought against as enemies, Balun gritted his teeth at the sight.

If only Luke, or rather the other chiefs, had made the correct judgments, things could have been different. The arrows and spears aimed at each other could have actually pointed at the Bugs.

Had that been the case, such meaningless sacrifices wouldn’t have occurred. Balun, who had tried to minimize damage and absorb the residents to prepare for the fight against the Bugs, couldn’t help but resent the faulty choices made by the enemy leaders.

“Every single person is precious. Look at the murderous intent of those monsters. Do those monsters discriminate between people or races? They just want to devour all living things on this land.”

Balun vented this frustration to those around him. The tribes that Balun had absorbed also didn’t lack in personal grudges or petty disputes, but such trivial matters couldn’t possibly interrupt their unity in the face of such overwhelming scenes.

“Hachi. Do you have the room? We need to stop those Bugs first.”

“Fortunately, nearly half of them headed toward Luke’s side. If we rally the warriors, it can work.”

“Ultimately, it’s for all of us, so let’s hold on a little longer.”

The newly transformed Balun flew towards the warrior commander fighting on the other side. He was planning to help Luke’s soldiers who were being slaughtered by the Bugs if the situation called for it.

It was absurd considering what they had done, but it was the destiny of one looking toward a wider and farther future.

‘Perhaps this could be an opportunity to incite strife within Luke’s forces.’

This wasn’t just a judgment based on simple missions or emotions.

Having naturally transformed his leadership trait into a dominance trait, Balun was convinced that he could use this opportunity to dismantle Luke’s united forces.

Luke was able to gather numerous tribes under his command precisely because he had demonstrated overwhelming military power. If that power broke, then naturally, that cohesion would shatter as well.

‘In the same sense, the other side is important too.’

Even amidst the fierce battles, Balun’s eyes turned to another direction.

There, thankfully, he saw those who had barely saved their lives, shaking off the Bugs’ pursuit and making their way here.

“Faster! Run faster!”

Right before the Bugs collided with the tribe of the grasslands, the kingdom’s delegation, desperately running, hadn’t yet reached a safe place.

From those with slow feet, some were brutally murdered by a few pursuing enemies, and they had to run forward, seizing every opportunity they could.

“Damn it!”

Leo, the escort captain, gritted his teeth in frustration. Protecting these people was his duty, yet he could only flee while those left behind were dying one by one.

If he even stopped for a moment, he would be swept away and killed by that massive wave.

“I—I can’t run anymore! @#$%.”

“You cannot! They are right on our tail!”

Meanwhile, the delegation’s representative, the Vice Minister, staggered with a face that seemed on the verge of death. He was already at his limits, unlike the knight Leo or the mage Rihar.

“You must survive.”

Leo clenched his teeth and pulled the Vice Minister along, throwing off his heavy armor. Even if he couldn’t protect anything else, he had to protect this man. If he failed, he thought there would be no reason for him to be alive.

‘This is bad.’

But even doing that, limits soon appeared. The Bugs continued their relentless pursuit without hesitation, even as they slaughtered Luke’s soldiers who didn’t know any better and charged in.

At this rate, they would surely be caught before reaching their destination. Leo saw the Vice Minister gasping for breath and had to make a decision. He didn’t know how far he could pull just on his own, but he tried to buy some time by throwing himself into the fray.

“Captain!”

“This is my duty.”

Despite the horrified shouts from Rihar and the Vice Minister, he glared at the glitch charging at the front with his sword raised. Behind it were a dozen more, and then hundreds following, but he wouldn’t back down.

“Uh.”

Then someone on a galloping horse passed him with full force. Hair tied tightly, flying in the air.

For a brief moment, when their eyes met, Leo froze with a sigh.

‘She jumped?’

Unlike Luke’s soldiers, Riena didn’t charge on horseback. Reaching the goal between the delegation and Bugs, Riena leaped off her horse, drawing her sword as she landed.

Then, with one swing of her sword, she split the charging glitch in half, and the golden light that burst forth was similar, yet different, from the divine they knew—radiant and shining.

‘Who is she?’

In the brief time while the other paladins arrived to buy time, Leo couldn’t take his eyes off Riena, who he was seeing for the first time.

With a sword as white as ivory, she sliced through enemies with one strike, radiating a powerful attack that ‘protected’ him.

Moreover, her attire matched her remarkable skill daringly. Seeing her white skin exposed in several places, he felt dizzy and unconsciously swallowed dryly.

The grassland tribes had their fair share of warrior women, but this was a completely different atmosphere.

“What are you standing there for!? Hurry up while they’re holding them off!”

Seeing Leo space out and the Vice Minister with such poor stamina, Rihar snapped as he grabbed Leo’s shoulder.

Although the delegation had been nearly wiped out except for a few key individuals, the rescue operation with the paladins was successful, and they could join the battered Arin Tribe.

*

– It seems to have turned out well after all.

“It’s a bit much to say it went well, but it did come to an end.”

I couldn’t help but smile bitterly at Lee So-Yeon’s nonchalant response to the news I delivered. She had seen how many people died.

Of course, like local leaders such as Balun, we had to calculate profits even in such situations. Both she and I had grown too accustomed to such matters.

‘We killed all the Bugs and won the battle, but we failed to annihilate Luke’s forces.’

It was unfortunate and frustrating, but the large issue involving countless lives and profits wasn’t resolved in a single clean sweep.

We had failed to capture or kill Luke, the enemy commander who had fled amidst the struggle against the Bugs along with his main forces.

“Still, we got what we needed…”

Objectively speaking, we had reaped all the gains we could see. We’d won the war, minimized damage, secured the delegation’s safety, and most importantly, saved a significant number of those who would have been massacred in the struggle against the Bugs, greatly weakening Luke’s forces.

I considered the attack on the delegation to be the most significant gain among them. Though it pained me to say it, they would likely retain the fear of the Bugs permanently etched into their bones after narrowly escaping death.

If they convey this content back to their homeland properly, there shouldn’t be any conflict with Luke’s force. I nearly shattered my keyboard in anger when Luke continued to make foolish judgments without recognizing the strength of the Bugs.

‘Anyway, if they’re this oblivious, it means there are no users in that world.’

The stress of seeing that the locals on screen didn’t know anything about the Bugs became considerable, but it also provided supporting evidence.

The truth was, there were no users in that world. If there were users who knew about the existence of Bugs, information would surely have come out.

In that case, it seemed there wouldn’t be any occurrence of the kind of “screen within a screen” scenario I had feared.

– It’s beneficial for us. They’re providing all the information about the Bugs themselves.

“That’s true. No, it must be.”

Earth was a different situation. As So-Yeon said, users had been sharing information about the Bugs, and those designated as Guardians could fight properly based on that information.

‘It must be resolved, right?’

The Bugs had become an issue that eventually necessitated global cooperation for everyone who lived on Earth, as users and Guardians arose without regard to nationality, just as the Bugs did.

Reluctantly, internal conflicts among residents could no longer be tolerated in this world.

Since all information was shared with the world without any deficiencies.

However, those like Luke obviously existed on Earth as well.

It would be absurd for those who couldn’t cooperate on even just the climate crisis to come together effectively to tackle the Bugs.

[Soldiers as Guardians?]

[Control of user information. The international power struggle continues.]

My eyes naturally narrowed as I read the news headlines.

While acknowledging that what someone recognized as a catastrophic disaster might seem like a sweet opportunity to someone else, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

“The people on the screen can make such choices because they don’t know yet. I can’t understand what the people here are doing. The humans who know just how terribly the Bugs devour people.”

– I think so too, but it seems the world hasn’t been shocking enough to change things yet.

“A lack of shock, huh. It’s still the same old story that people only start talking after lives are lost while they dawdle.”

I snorted lightly and stared blankly at the screen.

I thought my best move would be to look after the residents and defend the surrounding villages. I was convinced that just that would be enough for me.

However, the affairs of the world don’t always unfold as intended. Then, what would I do at that time? Surely, I would have gained more achievements and items, becoming stronger than now, and I likely wouldn’t just be sitting still, staring at the screen.

I absolutely didn’t want the horrific scenes I had seen on the screen to be replicated around me.