FB: Chapter 76 – The War Front

I was in the command area of the Human Empire Army looking over the most recent map of deployments. As the leader of a guild that had mobilized to this black zone, I was allowed to look at the general level intelligence that showed the deployment of forces.

All the fortresses and camps on the enemy’s side were well defended. Lots of ranged units in elevated defensive positions. The camp I had destroyed last time was the only one in a low laying area, leaving it exposed, but it also had a tremendous number of enemy forces present. The remaining camps were in much more defensible positions and the enemy forces had adopted a defensive posture after I had wiped out their one camp and the Dark Saint Gamabuturon.

The biggest problem was that the NPCs weren’t stupid. They would be ready if I showed up again using the same tactics, with lots of ranged attacks. I had just two more uses of the legendary poisons, after which they would be gone. Henry hadn’t been able to get any more unfortunately. I also didn’t have the resources to look for other alchemists at the moment.

I looked at the map and then at the opposing command area for the dark gods’ forces and the markers on the overly large map. The commander was estimated to be around level 350. The problem was, even if I killed the enemy commander, which would only net 5,000 war merits. The same amount the Dark Saint Gamabuturon had given.

The entire idea behind the system was to prevent what I wanted to do, which was to get a lot of war merits at once to get my guild out of this place. And even if I killed the enemy camps and this was no longer a black zone, if we didn’t have enough war merits our guild would have to relocate, which would be even worse outcome since we couldn’t afford to lose our good position at the moment.

I wouldn’t be allowed to get war merits in other black zones, only the one I was assigned to. Somehow, I needed to kill a lot of powerful individuals all at the same time in order to get 85,000 war merits all at once. While I had claimed I could get the war merits to end the mobilization, I was unsure of myself.

Super guilds in the past got war merits by slogging things out over a long period of time and earning the minimum amount per time period. Since our war merits had been reset, I needed to earn enough back to buy some breathing room for my guild. The people were still too low level.

The leading people were around level 55. That was higher than I remembered at this point in time in the past, but my crushing victories and high level were motivating people to work harder to catch up. As for the wave, it was around level 40. Slightly higher than I remembered in the past. I was level 103 for comparison.

The absolute level advantage the enemies in these black zones had were still too much. It would take time for things to normalize. What I needed was a way to earn a lot of war merits. I went over to the list of regulations pertaining to the war effort and began looking them over, looking for any kind of loophole that I could exploit.

I went over to one of the NPC aides stationed here to ask some questions. “Excuse me, I had some questions on the war regulations pertaining to war merits.”

“I would be happy to answer any questions you might have,” the military adjunct said. Since I had access to this location, these NPCs would be more than happy to help in simple matters.

“I notice that clearing a black zone of all hostiles awards war merits in terms of overall contribution by the various respective forces. What would be needed to clear a black zone and how would those war merits be allocated and in what amount?” I asked.

“Clearing a black zone means removing all enemy commanders and destroying their primary strongholds. Once a black zone has been cleared, the total war merits are based on the overall strategic picture. The more resources the Human Empire has committed to a black zone that are now freed up, the more war merits are awarded. For this black zone, it would probably be around 100,000 total war merits that are handed out once this black zone is cleared, but that can change,” he replied.

“If I do extensive damage to the enemy forces would the Human Empire move its troops forward?” I asked.

“We have orders to hold our position to prevent enemy forces from crossing into the Human Empire in large numbers. That is why this area is labeled a black zone. While we do send out punitive raids and attacks, you would have to speak with the General about changing our posture or engaging in some kind of joint operation.” That wasn’t going to happen.

The military leaders of the Human Empire had the mindset of rocks. They would not expand or take unnecessary risks. Losing a skirmish was one thing, but losing an entire military encampment and fortress was another. The mindset was very conservative. This was set up by QAI so that players would be used as auxiliaries to push back against the enemies of the Human Empire.

Clearing a black zone wasn’t going to happen either. I had never heard about such an event occurring in the past. That meant the difficulty would be too much. Even if a bunch of high level people were killed, they would need to be killed all at once and battle lines pushed to the edge of the zone to completely clear it.

“What about an escort? I could use support advancing to this location.” I pointed a location on the map to the military adjunct. He shook his head.

“Right now, we are holding defensive positions at these points. Extending beyond those locations would require approval of the General.” That wasn’t going to happen. Looking over the map in front of me, we just had control over one small part of zone, the side facing the Human Empire. While pressure had been relieved after killing Gamabuturon and destroying the camp, there was just too much area to cover.

If I had an actual super guild behind me that had members at a decent level, then I would have other options. I needed enough war merits to keep our position here at this location. As for the plan to counter the Unmentionable Horror, I would need to scrouge up some platinum.

I had paid back my earlier loan with my back-to-back tournament wins and betting. I could take out another personal loan, but it would be too difficult to pay it back. The coliseum was basically tapped out as a source of easy cash. Even merchandise sales had slowed down. The next Tournament of Champions might get me some more cash, but not that much.

Leaving the command area for the Human Empire I made my way back to the star fortress. The place was in good repair and was being expanded. “Guild Leader,” Combat Officer Kill Blade greeted me.

“How are things?” I asked.

“Stable for now. We are low on supplies and the rotation of members has been slowed down,” he said. I nodded at this. “But I am sure you know all this.”

“How many war merits are we gathering on a four-day cycle?”

“At the current rate of attacks, about 20,” he replied. “We can handle that, but we are below the required quota. That means we either need to change locations or go out.” Both of which were not feasible options. Changing locations would mean losing this prime location and the star fort that had been built up.

Going out for regular members, guild Champions, or anyone else besides myself was a death sentence. We needed to be earning at least 85 war merits per real world day. Since we owed 85,000, that was the expected rate that we would earn war merits at.

There was just too much pressure from too many directions at the moment. Mobilization, impossible quest, real world politics, it was a lot, and I didn’t have good solutions at the moment. “I wish to think by myself for a bit,” I said. Kill Blade nodded and made himself scarce as I stood on top of the star fortress.

It was designed this way to create overlapping fields of fire to more easily kill high level attacking monsters with guns. If only my political problems were so easily sorted out. I could go out and earn some war merits. Another 7,000 which wouldn’t even keep things stable for an entire year. That would buy around 100 days and we would still be losing money.

I needed time. Time for people to gain levels. Time for their combat ability and skills to increase. The safe answer would be to wipe an outpost and delay the issue, using up one of my two remaining uses of the pair of legendary poisons. That was my trump card and if I used it, I needed to resolve the situation for at least a year minimum.

What I needed to do was gamble again. Leverage my strength and my entire guild in a single decisive engagement if possible. I sent a message to Quant Z outlining my bold plan. His reply was that it was possible, but we would be financially crippling the guild. It would not be in a position to deal with the Unmentionable Horror. I could either go with my plan to deal with war merits or leverage the economic development to handle the Unmentionable Horror, not both. Even dealing with one would be a stretch. A large scale guild attack was not possible.

I needed to handle the situation out here myself otherwise the guild would economically collapse. There was just no wiggle room with the guild’s finances and personnel. One problem kept spiraling into another. I needed to stop the bleeding. There were no more low hanging fruits in terms of monetary acquisitions.

The only option was to sell Slice. But even that wasn’t feasible, since the player base didn’t have enough money to buy such an item. There were no super guilds who had incredibly deep pockets, who would be willing to shell out for such an item. The Fanged Fox guild was the biggest guild. That wouldn’t last with countries getting into Exponential but being at the top created barriers of its own.

Thinking about the situation, it appeared that I would just have to stem the bleeding by getting several thousand war merits. That would let us hang on for a while longer. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do. But there was no scheme I had in my back pocket to get out of this.

Even thinking back on everything I knew, earning war merits was a constant pain even for super guilds. It was the way the game and Human Emperor pressured large organizations. It was the resource pit that vast amounts of money and consumables were lost in. If my guild were larger and more developed, there were things I could do to cut down on costs.

But we didn’t have a crafting division to make certain consumables. Or a rapid base deployment division in order to quickly secure an area inside a black zone to advance and kill enemies for war merits. I was too high profile, which had been needed to get the guild started but was also a weight dragging everything down.

While Exponential might be the name of the game, QAI would adapt to try and keep the playing field level. The Human Emperor finding out about Quant Z’s indiscretions while raising money was just one way to put pressure on me.

All these problems could be resolved if we left the Human Empire. Unfortunately, that would cut into our ability to earn money and develop people. Leaving just wasn’t an option.