Chapter 198. 5,637 Regrets (4)
If one wishes to know about the 'power of the Warrior,' one must first know about the original owner of that power, the 'Warrior.'
The 'Warrior' is the me of the first playthrough.
Therefore, all 'powers of the Warrior' are traits created by the me of the first playthrough.
To borrow his expression, it was as if he had 'split his power and scattered it.'
In any case, [Warrior's Insight], [Warrior's Binding], [Warrior's Command], and [Warrior's Regret] are each a piece of the power that the me of the first playthrough possessed.
The interesting thing is that among these, [Warrior's Regret] has a different point from the other powers.
All other powers are available to anyone who has collected the Sacred Relics, but he said that [Warrior's Regret] was designed so that only he himself from the future timelines could obtain it.
In a word, it's my exclusive trait.
“...With that principle, if the soul's wavelength is the same, that power naturally seeps in. Even if it's not 'Nameless Ash,' if the soul is the same, the frequency will resonate. I think I've said it about five times. After explaining this much, you should understand the principle, right?”
‘No. It's fucking difficult.’
“……”
To summarize his explanation of [Warrior's Regret], it is a power that treats the 'possibility of what will happen in the future' as a 'single timeline,' and looks into the future as if one were saving a game file at the beginning and playing the later parts as a trial.
I roughly understand the concept, but there's no way to know the detailed principles.
After all, his vision, unlike mine, is practically close to the omniscience of a god.
What's more important to me is the methodology of how to use it.
I learned one thing.
In this process of 'looking into,' I don't know about the others, but [Warrior's Insight] and [Warrior's Binding] work perfectly.
‘To think it remains even after turning back time. Isn't that a cheat?’
“I'm telling you, I'm not turning back time. Even I can't turn back time. Since I'm looking at a possible image that's no different from reality, my power works properly.”
‘It's roughly similar to turning back time.’
“...Right. Let's just say that.”
During the 10 repeated battles, I didn't just command from the rear.
Ever since I confirmed in the 6th battle that the acquisitions of the two traits remained even after returning, both my clone and my main body have been staying on the front lines as much as possible, steadily acquiring skills and troops.
Among them, the biggest harvest would be the skills of the Curse Spirit Grandmaster, Hwayoung.
That harvest, by the 10th battle, began to show its prominence at Ash's fingertips.
[[Wan Hua Gui Yi Jing] is deployed.]
[[Crimson Flame Dragon] is deployed.]
[[Red Emperor Flame Lord] is deployed.]
I make all the heat of the world my own.
Fire, shaped into the form of a dragon, comes to life, writhes, and stirs the sky.
By offering the fire itself, I summon the Flame Lord, an Eastern concept of a spirit.
‘Kya-ha-ha! What, my Lord! You could use that too? If we both get back alive today, you have to teach me too!’
With the 10th-rank flame mage, the witch of mad fire, Ella Siollus, we drove away the monster born from Hwayoung.
We didn't kill it, just pushed it far from the battlefield, but the effect of unsealing the fire-based spells and weapons was significant.
The flame mages of the Red Magic Tower poured spells on the monsters.
The dwarves equipped the steam engine iron suits and the bipedal guardians with Dragon's Breath flamethrowers.
The high-temperature flames spewed by the iron monsters burned as many monsters as the mages' spells.
‘Kuhahaha! How do you like that, you vermin! This is the flame that the earth has given to us dwarves!’
Due to the efforts of the two forces, the battle, which would have originally ended in the annihilation of our army in three days, continued for nearly a week.
In the meantime, the refugees evacuated far enough.
In the end, the army and the Imperial Capital fell.
Still, we were able to protect 80% of the citizens.
“I'm starting to see some progress.”
And during the 10 times I turned back time, my conversation with the 'Warrior' also continued.
“Do you have a better grasp of the situation now?”
‘Roughly.’
First, the information about him, the 'Warrior,' is as follows.
He was the me of the first playthrough.
That is, the me at the point when I first installed the game and pressed the 'new game' button.
Although I thought I had fallen into the game world for the first time, in fact, the same phenomenon was repeated every time I pressed 'new game.'
The 'timeline' he had been talking about so much was the world of Warlord Conquest that was newly created every time the real me pressed the 'new game' button.
‘Then what happened to the me of the previous playthroughs? The worlds that were created with me?’
“They all died. The world they woke up in was destroyed in the flames of war.”
‘Destroyed?’
“Originally, this world was destined to be broken in an endless war.”
He smiled bitterly.
To summarize the ensuing explanation, it is as follows.
First, the world of 'Warlord Conquest' is a world destined to meet its end in an endless war.
Second, the reason I keep falling into this world was to stop that end.
Third, among the past 5,637 playthroughs, only the 'me' of the first playthrough had reached the crossroads where he could stop the end.
‘They all failed? But I saw the game clear screen for at least one or two out of ten.’
“Even after the game's clear screen appears, the time of the world continues. The moment you create a new world, the previous world has left your hands.”
‘Even so, I created the strongest force on the continent. Does it get destroyed just because it has left my hands?’
“Unfortunately.”
He shook his head.
At this point, I can't help but wonder.
What kind of difficulty is this world?
No, what is that end?
What method did the guy from the first playthrough use to stop that end?
“The end is literally an endless war. It's a kind of law. Just as there were laws like conservation of mass and action-reaction in the universe we lived in, this world is also governed by a powerful law called war. No matter how powerful an empire is, it cannot be safe in the face of a thousand years of war.”
‘Then how did you survive?’
“Do you remember setting the difficulty of the first playthrough to minimal UI and very easy?”
I remember.
How could I forget the memory of first encountering the game that would be with me for half a lifetime.
At the time, having no particular knowledge of the culture of gaming other than watching it on YouTube, I had disabled most of the UI options, including all notification windows, saying that a game had to be realistic to be immersive.
Of course, I then took the contradictory action of choosing the 'very easy' difficulty out of fear.
“So what happened?”
‘Well, I played around for a bit in the beginning, and then it was too easy, so I started a new game.’
“Yes. That's it. It was because it was so easy that you could barely endure it.”
He let out a faint sigh.
“Not to say it wasn't a hell of a lot of work.”
Well, come to think of it, no matter how easy the difficulty was, it was the first playthrough.
He wouldn't have had as much knowledge about the game as I do now, and he had turned off all the UI, including the notification windows that would have told him a little.
At the beginning, he probably didn't have any of the slightly cheaty powers like [Warrior's Insight] or [Warrior's Binding].
He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Do you know what the trap of the very easy difficulty is?”
‘I don't know. After the first playthrough, I always played on hard or higher.’
“I thought so. I'll tell you. The trap is that a one-man play is possible. A single main hero on the player's side is more than enough to deal with armies and nations.”
He chuckled.
And again.
Beyond the shadow cast on his face, I felt as if I had seen the shadow of some giant being that transcended perception.
Looking up at the towering palm of the God of War with empty eyes, he continued.
“Did I fight for about four hundred years? By then, I was the only one left alive. Everyone else was dead. But I won. There were some small fry left, but I still won.”
Suddenly, he seemed big.
As big as the God of War, whose one palm was the size of the entire empire's land.
No.
I was mistaken.
The God of War seemed small.
An unknown being that surpassed even the size of this room, which was comparable to a solar system, conveyed a lump of gloomy meaning and emotion to me.
The transmission of that meaning was certainly not the vibration of the air, but perhaps due to the consideration of that cosmic being, it vibrated my eardrums, which had stopped with time, and dug into my mind in the form of the Korean language.
“You said you were curious about how to stop the end, right?”
‘…….’
“If you keep winning, you can choose one of two things. The divine throne of the God of War and the endless power that comes with it. Or to go back.”
The world vibrates.
A sigh.
I think he let out something like that.
In a hallucination where the entire universe seemed to be rumbling and trembling, a lump of meaning that flowed from an old god dug into my mind and was unraveled and unraveled.
“The God of War symbolizes the war of this world itself. Anyone can usurp that position through war, and can rule the law of war.”
“Although it is a position that presides over the war that will continue until this world is destroyed…. to me, who came from outside this world, one more option was given.”
“It was to give up the divine throne, the symbol of war, and go back. It was an option to stop that timeline from being destroyed by war, in exchange for abandoning everything I had gained in this land.”
“What do you think I chose? My family was all dead if I went back. In this world, too, all the comrades I wanted to protect were gone. I decided to stay, with a power that was no different from a god's.”
“And, I regretted it.”
“At the time, I had no idea that if the real me pressed 'new game,' another world would be born.”
***
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The war drum beats.
Soldiers, holding their helmets, run along the city walls.
Carts loaded with cannonballs and arrows are rushing towards the front lines.
The tenth day since the battle began.
The Imperial Capital is holding on firmly.
Thud! Kwoong…!
The noise of artillery, the hissing sound of falling shells, and the roar of exploding cannonballs and landmines echo from all directions.
Although everyone, including the artillery corps, is fighting hard, the enemy's momentum has not been broken.
The magic of the Diviner-monster still covers the sky like a cloud.
To shake off the Hwayoung-monster, Ella Siollus has been fighting in the southern swamp for several days.
The Wind Master-monster is holding back the entire fleet of aerial battleships by fighting a fleet battle above the clouds.
The Eastern expeditionary force, almost all of whom have pupated into monsters, is still launching repeated wave attacks to cross the second wall.
Although tens of thousands of monsters have been killed by fire and holy power, their numbers have actually increased from the beginning due to their characteristic of splitting when fatally wounded but not killed.
“……”
But, we are protecting it.
The uncollapsed Imperial Capital, Wolfskrig, and its citizens.
This is because there was a slight change in the initial tactics.
<No matter how many times I think about it, I'm impressed. How did you think of taking the Orb of Fire? No, how did you know it was in the hands of the Ratmen?>
As the God of War, who is trying to hide his lack of composure, keeps chattering, Count Ash, even before the battle began, dug into the foundation of the Imperial Capital, entered the Ratmen tunnels, and succeeded in stealing the 'Orb of Fire,' a strategic weapon prepared to sink the Imperial Capital entirely.
The 1,004th coin.
I have completely broken one of the enemy's three tactics.