Chapter 199. 5,637 Regrets (5)
Although no one can say for sure when computers surpassed humans, at least one Chapter that always appears in that debate is the game of Go.
In fact, AI had already easily beaten humans in the intellectual contest of chess.
However, at the time, some experts argued that unlike chess, Go has a near-infinite number of possible moves, requiring a contest of so-called 'intuition,' and therefore, machines could not surpass humans.
Well, the result is as everyone knows.
It was a landslide victory for the computer.
However, what I want to talk about now is not the result, but the process of the contest.
In that match of the century, the legendary Go player selected as the human representative showed the strength of humanity against the seemingly invincible machine and achieved a thrilling victory at least once.
In an interview conducted later, a host asked him 'how' he won.
The answer was concise.
'I created a bug.'
The reason I'm recalling that one phrase now is probably because the battle I'm fighting has a similar aspect to that match.
My opponent is the God of War.
War itself.
He has witnessed all the endless wars of human history in his mind.
And he is a being who has even repeated that in countless repeated timelines.
Forget about being a veteran gamer, I can't even hold a candle to him in terms of war data.
Because he has literally watched countless battlefields for tens of thousands of years.
During the five thousand chances I was given, there was no way I could win by honestly growing my 'tactical capabilities.'
So I chose a different method.
To create a bug.
<Did you know what the Orb of Fire was? No, I suppose you could have known that much. But how did you think of giving it to the Ratmen? And you even dug a tunnel three li deep?>
To create a bug, one needs to do a so-called 'ridiculous thing.'
So I moved my main body, Ash, and jumped right into the middle of the Ratmen tunnels, the enemy camp.
Even before the battle began, I entered the dwarves' armory, pretending to inspect the modification process of the aerial battleships.
And I immediately started digging a tunnel down by myself.
‘C-Count? What on earth are you trying to do….’
‘Quiet. I'll be back soon.’
It was an act that did not fit the image of a 'sincere lord and rational commander' that I had carefully cultivated so far.
No, in the first place, it would be ridiculous for a normal commander to do such an impulsive thing.
Well, it doesn't matter.
What's important is the result.
And the ingredients that create that result.
[[Earth Flow Reversal] is deployed.]
Puhwak!
In that sense, all the abilities and information I have are excellent ingredients.
Through [The Warrior's Regret], I have already repeated the battle where both sides poured all their strength more than a thousand times.
I have learned all the earth-based spells and arts of both empires, as well as the fire-based and water-flow-based spells that would harden the tunnels.
The map of the spiderweb-like Ratmen tunnels is also completely in my head.
[[Explore Earth Vein] is deployed.]
[[Water Droplet Throwing] is deployed.]
[[Burning Wind] is deploy….]
[[Aid of the Skywind] is…….]
Tugwagwagwagwak……!!
I dig down at a speed that puts an excavator to shame.
Mana potions from the subspace flow endlessly down my throat, and are soon shaped into delicate spells at my fingertips through my blood vessels, digging out the dirt and hardening the tunnels.
The only thing that was difficult to solve with spells was oxygen, but I solved this by receiving it through the wind spirits.
The underground is originally the Ratmen's home ground, but they did not detect me.
That's because the tunnel I'm digging is only wide enough for a single adult male to barely squeeze through.
The vibrations I create are so small that even the Ratmen cannot distinguish them from their own 'living vibrations.'
Unless the tunnels overlap, detection itself would be a distant prospect.
That's why I started digging the tunnel by myself without any explanation.
‘The moment I explain the situation, at least a few guards will be attached to me.’
The widened tunnels would be immediately detected by the Ratmen.
I have already failed in that way more times than I can count on both hands.
It's also much faster to move alone.
The time it took to avoid all the Ratmen tunnels and directly enter the center was less than an hour.
‘Jiiik-!’
‘I-i-i, intru…!’
I broke through the floor of a huge stone chamber where a ritual was in full swing, and in an instant, I snatched the Orb of Fire placed in the center of the magic circle and fled with spatial movement.
Immediately after, I poured 'Dragon's Breath' into the tunnel I had dug up to there and set it on fire, turning the Ratmen who were preparing for the ritual into crispy fried rat meat.
<Hah, a commander, and the main body at that, going down himself. You must be mad.>
Of course, I didn't do such a crazy thing for no reason.
After being unable to win a single time in the hundreds of repeated field battles, I finally realized.
The defeat in the field battle was not a problem at the tactical level.
It was because the weight class itself was different.
A field battle is fundamentally a battle of weight classes.
A flyweight champion can't beat a heavyweight champion no matter what he does.
I tried all sorts of tricks, but in the end, there was only one way to overcome the weight class difference with the enemy.
‘To fight a siege battle from the beginning, not a field battle.’
It is said that in a traditional siege battle, one can overcome a force difference of two to ten times.
It means that preventing the collapse of the Imperial Capital is no longer an option, but a necessity.
I was able to achieve this goal by stealing the Orb of Fire, the source of the energy that the enemy used to collapse the Imperial Capital along with its foundation.
It was around this time that the ever-composed God of War started to talk nonsense.
<The Sacred Relics you possess. Do you know that they are beings who have crossed countless timelines?>
He asked.
As if to distract my concentration.
But I can feel it.
That the man, flustered by the ridiculous act, is causing a 'bug.'
In fact, his command starts to get tangled from the moment he starts this nonsense.
They are very subtle, small and trivial mistakes that are difficult to notice, but I can see them all.
It's not because I'm a tactical genius.
It's just….
<I myself have been through eleven worlds. The first was the world I was born in, and I destroyed nine. This is the eleventh.>
“I see.”
<Do you know? All those who have seized the throne of the God of War are mortals like you. In the recurring cycle of timelines, a person who is out of the ordinary is born very rarely, and that person gains the qualification to challenge the throne. I was the same. In my world, when I was a mortal, I was called the Eastern Emperor. I am that Eastern Emperor.>
“Is that so?”
<Hah, you answer as if you know everything. So arrogant.>
…Because it's a complaint I've heard over a thousand times.
That's right.
This is already the 3,177th battle.
***
It is said that a bug that crashes the entire computer does not happen overnight.
Because a serious error is easy to find, and therefore can be fixed.
Surprisingly, the beginning of the accident is small things.
A minor short circuit.
Data loss of a few kb.
Trivial errors, etc.
When bugs that can be ignored accumulate and accumulate, eventually, a bottleneck or a twist formed somewhere leads to an irreversible result.
After succeeding in stealing the Orb of Fire for the first time in the 1,004th battle, I paid attention to his mistakes and carried out several more 'bug-inducing acts' one by one.
Leaving the troublesome Lumer Legion alone and retreating.
Using the Emperor's authority to crush the Church, and bringing the vampire's undead army into the city to deploy them on the southern defense line.
Using the Orb of Fire as a one-time magic tool to raise Ella Siollus' ability to the 11th rank, and having her hold back the Hwayoung-monster for several days.
Suddenly spamming high-level miracles like [Divine Punishment] with the clone of the necromancer Tribus and disrupting the enemy formation.
And so on.
<Haha! You've finally gone mad! Are you planning to start a civil war inside the city!>
<No, the Orb of Fire. You're using and discarding that priceless artifact of the century like a worn-out shoe? What on earth are you thinking?>
<Hah, using miracles as a necromancer? Are you planning to see the end of the Imperial Church! Even if you win, the Empire will collapse from within!>
Come to think of it, humans are similar.
Trivial habits, mistakes, thoughts, and emotions accumulate repeatedly and change a person's life.
Not a few people neglect minor imbalances and end up with a ruined life as a result.
‘...I was like that too.’
Even if I was hit by a motorcycle, I could have fulfilled my dream by becoming a commentator instead of an athlete.
On the day the accident happened during a strenuous training session, if I had been a little more careful, I might have been able to avoid a serious injury.
When I woke up in the hospital and faced the time that had passed and the death of my family, I could have been relieved that I still had one blood relative left.
Instead of sinking into a game listlessly, couldn't I have been grateful for the funds I was given and my quick recovery, and set out to find a new goal?
Well, honestly, I think it's too much to put all the blame on myself.
But now I can't deny it.
That in the end, my life was not made by a few big events, but by the small choices that have piled up over decades.
In fact, after falling into this world, at the many forks in the road where I could have been broken, I made better choices.
Despite the fact that the choices given to me became harsher as I had a will of steel.
‘…It's all in the past.’
Yes.
It's in the past, and I've experienced it.
So I know well.
That often, we only realize that something has gone wrong when we face the consequences, but by then it's too late.
Because a problem caused by a single cause and a problem caused by the accumulation of hundreds of different causes are on a different level of difficulty to solve.
Whether it's a computer or a human, it's not different.
If omniscience is lacking, even a god would be the same.
<What is it. What on earth have you done?>
The God of War stopped his legion from moving.
Checkmate.
I have seized the upper hand.
The monster legion is trapped.
The solid third wall and the second urban area full of traps have trapped them like a pocket.
Dwarven-made weapons and fire spells are pouring down on them.
The detour on the south side is being held up by the vampire's undead.
The north is being held by the elves and dwarves.
The only reinforcement, the Lumer Legion, was blocked by Alina Pewin, the necromancer Tribus, and Bishop Castro openly pouring out miracles.
<This is, ridiculous. This is not something that can be calculated. This is……!>
The hero force is no different.
The Hwayoung-monster is being held back by Ella Siollus, who has awakened with the Orb of Fire.
The Wind Master-monster is being faced by the elf queen Karen, who commands the top-class wind spirits, and Count Ash, with the assistance of the fleet of aerial battleships.
The Diviner-monster is on the verge of death after being beaten up by Randal, who was secretly sent behind them.
Although the tide of the battle turned to their side again when their only hope and most powerful pawn, the Eastern Emperor-monster, came to the front.
<And yet, you're hiding something. You, I can see everything. What are you hiding. No, why are you still hiding it!>
Now he must know.
That I can even turn this around.
Even a rotten fish is still a fish.
He is a man who has held the title of God of War for over ten repeated timelines.
He should be able to tell if there's a hidden move just from my expression, breathing, actions, or atmosphere.
He must have already calculated how much military strength I would need to turn the current disadvantage around.
In reality, I have more military strength than that.
The battle that is repeated with [The Warrior's Regret].
The power that is preserved within it is not only the skills obtained with [Warrior's Insight].
[[Warrior's Binding] is deployed.]
[The defeated enemy has been bound.]